


Winter Troupe Digital Adventure

by LegendaryBiologist13



Category: A3! (Video Game), Digimon - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Adventure, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Fights, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Literal Sleeping Together, Major Character Injury, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Spoilers for JP Events
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:01:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 42,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25975615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegendaryBiologist13/pseuds/LegendaryBiologist13
Summary: The urban legends of Mankai collaborate to send Winter Troupe to Digital World. It is to test their bond, they say.
Relationships: Arisugawa Homare/Guy/Mikage Hisoka/Takatoo Tasuku/Tsukioka Tsumugi/Yukishiro Azuma
Comments: 54
Kudos: 80





	1. Urban Legends Conspiracy

**Author's Note:**

> I have always loved writing fantasy stuff, so when I first jumped into A3 fandom, I often wondered how I can write something fantastical in a realistic (mostly, because Act 4 is magical) setting. Then I thought of using the urban legends and borrowing the world of Digimon. This also contains references to my older A3! work A Doll's Tale.

_"Urban legends don't exist!"_

People in Mankai always said that. Well, of course they had a reason to say so, because none of the urban legends had ever messed around with them.

Winter Troupe would beg to differ, however, along with the Director. They had yet to learn what happened behind the scenes though; the urban legends always had their meetings in a place hidden from the outside world.

The storage room - or rather, the Unopening Door's pocket dimension - was a dark rectangular chamber laden with coffins, guillotines, scaffolds, ghost masks, and pretty much any horror props one could think of. The Torment Doll and the Loupe of Sincerity hovered there, right in front of the Unopening Door.

"Testing Winter Troupe's bond?" the blue cat-like plush asked the door. "Aren't they close enough by now?"

The loupe sighed. "Silly doll. They may be close, but if you take a closer look, they are still rather distant."

"But Loupe, aren't they always willing to carry each other's burden? That already shows how close they are."

"There are still many untold stories between them. They need to open up more."

"I've come up with a plan." If a door could smile, then the Unopening Door would've done it, at least what the Torment Doll would like to think. "I'd like to trap them in another world, and they must work together to find the way out."

"I like how that sounds, Door," the loupe commented. "Trap them in a perilous fantasy world. Force them to get closer and work together to survive."

"That's mean, Loupe!" the doll exclaimed. "Most of them aren't used to fighting!"

"They can learn from the combat veterans in the troupe. Look, recently Homare starred in the action-packed sentai play with Tasuku and did very well. It was his first time performing action scenes."

The door chuckled. "It's always Homare."

"He is an interesting fellow," the loupe deadpanned. "Aside from Homare, Guy piques my interest as well."

"You have a soft spot for the 'machines' of Winter Troupe, huh?"

"If anything, I feel like wanting to hold their hands as they try to learn about human emotion. I have what it takes to help them."

"You sure?" the doll asked. "Peeking into someone else's mind without permission is a violation of privacy."

The loupe sighed. "It is not as bad as you think. In fact, Mankai would have disbanded if Homare had not used me to patch things up."

"Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind," the door added. "Look at what I'm about to do. While I'll give them help here and there, I'm also more than willing to put them on the brink of death."

If the Torment Doll had been a human, it'd have felt chills running down its spine. Honestly, was it any better? It'd trapped Tsumugi and Tasuku in a time loop after all, just so that the two men would mend their fences.

The environment rippled violently before fading to nothingness. A moment later, clear blue sky and foliage materialized in the void, followed by a lime green lizard amid the cluster of trees. It had a big red fin on its back.

The Torment Doll scrutinized the kite-shaped reptile, who crept around as if the doll, the loupe, and the door didn't exist. "Isn't that a Digimon? Are you planning to send them to Digital World like what happens in _Digimon Adventure_?"

"Yes. The world will be smaller than the original however," the door replied. "I'm basing it on the very old _Digimon World_ game, with some features added and removed."

"Are you assigning a partner Digimon to everyone then?"

"Let them fight by themselves!" the loupe snapped. "It should give them what it takes to perform action scenes in the future."

"Loupe-"

"I'll save the idea of assigning partner Digimon for the future." The door chuckled. "Who knows, someday I might be itching to trap them in Digital World again."

In the distance, arcs of electricity crackled across the body of the lizard Digimon. At the sight, the Torment Doll had to remind itself that it was a doll; it could never wince no matter how much it wanted to. Imagine ordinary humans like Winter Troupe members coming in contact with these magical creatures; how could they defend themselves?

"Door, please be more lenient!"

The loupe whacked the plush on the head. "Silence, Torment Doll. Unopening Door is not done speaking yet."

"I'm quite lenient, Doll." The door laughed softly. "I've assigned an element and evolution for each person. Think _Digimon Frontier_."

"Uh…" The Torment Doll didn't know whether it should laugh or sigh at the door's idea. If the door assigned the elements based on the Chosen Children of _Digimon Frontier_ , one of Winter Troupe guys would evolve into a lady.

"You can make them transform into a Digimon?" the loupe asked.

"That's why I can't create a vast world for them," the door answered. "Giving them evolution itself is extremely draining."

"You should set a limit for it."

"Well, if they evolve too much, it'll get harder for me to maintain the world. Things will go wrong a lot. If bad enough, those guys might even disappear along with the world."

"That sounds dangerous!" the doll commented.

"Not if you know not to abuse evolution. Moreover, it's not that they're completely defenseless when they're unevolved. They can use a lesser form of their elemental powers in their human form."

The loupe sighed. "You are too generous for your own good."

"Considering how powerful Digimon can be, it's not always a good idea to fight them as a human."

"What should they do to get out then?" the doll asked.

"I have a set of quests prepared for them." The Unopening Door was nothing but a wooden door, but the Torment Doll could easily picture it having a pair of hands and rubbing them together while grinning like an evil mastermind. "They can't complete them all without proper teamwork."


	2. Sleepless Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My thoughts as I wrote this? I missed writing fantasy, so I just felt like letting it all out. Hopefully I can write many chapters before the "rush" was over.
> 
> Also, EN spells out "Penpen" as "Pen Pen," so I'll be using it.

"Quiet, Arisu!"

For the umpteenth time tonight, Hisoka crawled towards Homare's loft bed and smacked him in the face with Pen Pen. Yet the sleeping Homare wouldn't shut up.

"Rough winds...do shake..." A snore. "The darling buds...of May..."

Hissing, Hisoka let go of his penguin plush and cupped his ears. Every night in Room 205, he had to endure either Homare stressing over writer's block, snoring like a chainsaw cutting through logs, or reciting poems in his sleep. Hisoka could always move to Room 206 and sleep, but considering what time it was now, it'd be rude of him to do so. Not that Azuma and Guy would reject him, but Hisoka could never bring himself to disturb them.

If anything, Hisoka often felt like wanting to protect Azuma and Guy; both of them were like him in a way. Azuma had lost his beloved family, while Guy was a combat veteran.

"And summer's lease..." Homare mumbled. "Hath all too short...a date…"

Once again Hisoka grabbed Pen Pen and whacked Homare's face with it, but his roommate kept snoring and reciting the poem. Sighing, Hisoka went down the ladder of the loft bed and stormed out of the room, an arm wrapped around his penguin plush. He'd subconsciously slammed the door shut; while Hisoka felt sorry for the other residents of Mankai dorm, he was sure as hell that Homare would simply sleep through the noise.

Earthy scent wafted in the air. Leaves rustled in the night wind as Hisoka walked along the second floor corridor. He'd fall asleep on the floor anytime soon; the dim lights and especially the gentle breeze made his eyelids feel so heavy.

Hisoka fought against the temptation to sleep and went down the staircase. Having lost a few hours of slumber because of Homare, he'd better find a very obscure sleeping spot and sleep until at least lunchtime.

Arriving on the first floor, he looked around like a predator looking for prey. The bench on the courtyard? Everyone would immediately find him. Atop the tree? His troupe mates already knew that spot. The lush flower bed? He wouldn't want to ruin Tsumugi's hard work.

Then Hisoka remembered something. When Winter Troupe had just formed, he stumbled across the Unopening Door. Unlike all the doors in the dorm, it looked rather pinkish and didn't have a lock. He was somehow locked up behind the door, inside a creepy storage room with the Director. Now he wondered how he could find it again; according to the Director, it disappeared once they left the chamber.

Maybe he should try checking that spot again.

Yawning, Hisoka walked across the courtyard. Then he realized that he'd been going out barefooted, but not that he cared. His soles would gather a lot of the dust from the wooden path, but going back to get his footwear would be a pain. Besides, this was nothing compared to his days as a street urchin; he once lost his shoes and had to step on snowy terrain.

From the distance, Hisoka spotted the Unopening Door. Nothing had changed…

It had. When Hisoka opened the door, he saw nothing but a vast sea of darkness. Although rays of light from the moon and courtyard lamps poured into the room, it remained dark and empty.

His instincts told him to back away, but if he followed it, he'd be giving up a great sleeping spot. So he stepped into the void.

And the door slammed shut.

Hisoka glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widening; the door was gone along with the wall. As much as he wanted to sleep, he ran to where the door and the wall used to be, only to find himself running across endless darkness. What the hell? He saw no floor, yet he felt like stepping on one.

It felt cold and smooth, but only for a while. Now it felt rough. And mucky. Looking down, he found his grubby feet shuffling through dry leaves and twigs.

Palisades of trees appeared around him, sifting the sunlight from the cerulean sky. Hisoka stopped in his tracks and looked around, his mouth agape. Wild shrubs, flowers, and fungi… How could he end up in a forest?

His ears registered a crash from behind, amid the chirping of birds and the rustling of foliage. In a flash, he turned, bolted past whatever had caused the noise, and gave it a headlock.

"What the hell!"

Then Hisoka realized that he was dealing with a monster. It was red in color and resembled a giant pitcher plant, with vines growing out of its body like a pair of arms. Spikes covered their plump, yellowish ends.

Hisoka released the monster and dashed away. Survival rule number one: never, ever fight a battle you could never win.

"Come back here, human!"

Hisoka kept running, without looking back; he only needed the rapid, steady crashes from behind to know how far he was from the monster.

A loud _pshhh_ echoed, and Hisoka jumped aside. As he climbed up a tree and made his way to a stout branch, a rolling cloud of green streamed along the path beneath. It dispersed and faded, leaving behind withering plants.

If Hisoka wanted to sleep, he first had to get rid of the monster. But how could he do that? He had no weapons at all.

Down there, the monster stared at him with its slit eyes. Then it inhaled. Its body bloated.

Whatever would happen, Hisoka strode along the bough and hopped onto the branch of another tree. Green fumes shot out of the monster's mouth and ripped off the bough he used to stand on.

Hisoka growled. Running away was hella tiring; he only wanted a peaceful sleep, for God's sake! If he had to be honest, he'd rather endure Homare's antics than going through this!

Then Hisoka noticed that he hadn't been sweating, despite having moved a lot. Although sunlight was beating down upon him, it was as though chilly wind blew around him. His soles also felt cold, just like that time he stepped on a snowy terrain without shoes.

Looking down, he found snow underneath his feet, with icicles hanging on the branch he stood on. He could swear that these didn't exist earlier.

As the monster drew closer to the tree, Hisoka ran again and coated the entire branch with snow and icicles. His eyes widened; was he producing those from his body? If yes, then he could perhaps fight the damn thing and win.

He had an idea.

Once the monster stood beneath him, Hisoka stomped the branch. Icicles rained down upon it, piercing into its body as if it were a pincushion. The monster shrieked and thrashed, its body flickering like a broken lamp.

Whatever was happening, Hisoka ran back and forth along the branch and barraged the monster with snow and icicles. Its movement slowed down. Its shriek died away. And soon, it collapsed and exploded into shiny dust. The wind blew its remains away, leaving behind snow and icicles.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Hisoka lay down on the snow-covered branch and rested his head on Pen Pen. The coldness of his "bed" was just right; he could fall asleep in a matter of seconds. Weird, wasn't it? In the past, lying on snowy terrain would chill him to the core and keep him awake.

Well, time to sleep.


	3. Restless Morning

"Bonjour, world!" Homare rose from his bed and cleared his throat. "Under the majestic morning sun I see thy eyes sparkling like peridots… What do you think of my newest piece, Hisoka?"

No response.

"Hisoka?" Homare looked around. Upon seeing an empty bed, he shrugged. "You are such a rebellious child."

He went down the ladder of his loft bed and walked towards his desk. Just another day with his dear roommate, he thought. Time to find Hisoka and drag him to shower, breakfast, and rehearsal.

Opening the drawer of his desk, he gasped; he'd forgotten to lock it! Then he let out a sigh of relief upon finding a bag of marshmallows in there. What luck, Hisoka didn't steal it.

After closing the drawer, he put on his sandals and walked out of the room. Oh, how he loved the morning view from the second floor corridor. What was a speck in the blue sky gleamed gloriously like a polished medallion, spraying rays of light down upon the trees and the lush flower beds on the courtyard.

His poetic spirit stirred.

"The celestial fireball lies in the sky with such elegance, igniting the world with its golden brilliance, reminding us to start seeking new experience…"

"Morning, Homare," came a soft voice from behind him.

Homare turned. Azuma stood beside the staircase, clad in a long sleeve tee, jeans, and sneakers, with a big plastic bag in hand.

"A good morning to you, Azuma!" Homare greeted with a smile.

"You're energetic as always." Azuma approached him; from the fragrance, Homare could tell that he'd just done taking a bath. Looking at the courtyard, Azuma asked, "The morning view from here is beautiful, isn't it?"

Homare's smile grew wider. "Indeed." Nothing pleased him more than knowing that Azuma had changed his opinion about morning. A long time ago as a professional cuddler, Azuma would find his clients leaving him in the morning and get reminded of his lonely childhood, but now as a member of Winter Troupe, Azuma would find his troupe mates by his side in the morning.

"Anyway, are you looking for Hisoka?"

"Oh? Perhaps you know where he has gone?"

Azuma shook his head, with a long face. "Unfortunately, I don't." Then he smiled and walked away from Homare. "I'll help you find him once I'm done putting away my stuff."

Homare went down the staircase. "Ah, you need not worry. I shall look for him by myself."

Arriving on the first floor, Homare looked around for signs of Hisoka. His focus first went to the treetop, Hisoka's favorite sleeping spot, but there was nothing. Then he shifted his gaze to the bench and the flower beds, only to find nothing.

Gulping, Homare stepped into the courtyard and looked up at the roof. When he found nothing, a part of him felt relieved, but another part of him felt uneasy. Where could Hisoka have possibly gone? If Hisoka had been in the lounge, the dining room, the rehearsal room, or even the bathroom, Azuma would've known that.

Could it be the Unopening Door again?

"You are such a troublesome child, Hisoka," Homare grumbled as he walked across the courtyard. But as troublesome as Hisoka was, Homare found it fun to take care of him. Perhaps it was because he knew how lonely Hisoka was. Or perhaps he just loved Hisoka that much.

People said the Unopening Door was an elusive thing; it'd only appear during unexpected times. But this morning it was there, on the very spot where Winter Troupe usually found it. The door lacked a lock, but could somehow get locked.

Reality was often stranger than fiction, Homare thought.

Opening the door, he gasped. Why was it nothing but pure darkness? Wasn't it supposed to be a storage room that housed numerous props for horror plays?

Whatever. Homare would find Hisoka and drag him out, period. Walking into the void, he shouted, "Hisoka, I have marshmallows!"

The door slammed shut, and Homare jumped a bit. When he turned, his eyes widened. No door. No wall. No light. No sound. There was a floor somehow; Homare knew as he could run around and hear the thudding of his slippers against the ground.

The thuds became crunches, and Homare stepped on a bump and crashed into the ground. What a rough landing. Literally. Falling flat on dry leaves and twigs made his face itch.

Huh? The room behind the Unopening Door had a hardwood floor, didn't it? Glancing over his shoulder, he found out that he'd just tripped over the protruding root of a tree.

Trees… Trees… Trees were everywhere, along with shrubs, flowers, and fungi, bathed in golden rays of light from the sun in the clear blue sky...

Inspiration came crashing down on him like a tidal wave!

Getting up, Homare brushed the detritus off him. "Rustling leaves, falling leaves, everything leaves, Mother Nature grieves-"

"Food!" a childlike voice shouted from beneath him.

Homare looked down, and his brow furrowed. A lime green lizard snatched off the bag of marshmallows on the ground with its teeth. Then the kite-shaped reptile crept away from Homare.

"Thief!" Homare picked up the lizard by the big red fin on its back.

Arcs of electricity crackled across the body of the lizard. "This is my territory!"

Homare screamed as pain wracked his body. With his limbs going numb, he released the lizard and collapsed, stiff as a log. His heart beat so wildly that he almost couldn't breathe.

"Insolent brat…" He tried to rise to his feet, but his weakened body said no. Yet the sight of the reptile scuttling away with the bag of marshmallows made him want to push his body further. Those fluffy little sweets belonged to Hisoka, nobody else!

Dirt and dried leaves clung to his pajamas as he inched ahead with a wince. The scurrying lizard had almost disappeared from his sight, but Homare kept going. With the numbness fading, he could move faster now.

The lizard halted, in front of a silhouette of a human. When Homare drew closer to it, his eyes widened. A scowling Hisoka loomed before him, an arm wrapped around Pen Pen. A thin layer of ice coated the kite-shaped reptile and the bag of marshmallows.

"Hisoka?"

"You're so loud. I heard you from far away."

His body regaining more of its strength, Homare sat up with a smile. "Thank you for coming to my rescue."

"Dumb Arisu, always getting into a trouble." Hisoka picked up the frozen lizard and gave it a sad look. "I froze the marshmallows by accident."

Homare blinked. "You _froze_ them? You know sorcery all this long?"

"Dunno. When I got here, snow and ice kept appearing around me. Then I learned to control it a bit."

"Is that not wonderful?" Homare slowly stood up, almost toppling over as soon as he was on his feet; it sure took a while for the effect of the electric shock to go away. "You can wield magic! It will be a huge asset for Mankai!"

"Noisy." Hisoka inspected the slab of ice, as if trying to find its weak spot.

"Allow me to help you." Homare reached out for the chunk of ice, but Hisoka pulled it back. His fingers managed to graze it and leave behind trails of water and smoke.

Hisoka raised an eyebrow. "Arisu, what was that?"

"Huh?" Homare placed a hand on the ice. It somehow felt warm to his palm.

Hissing sounds echoed. Threads of smoke rose from his hand as the ice melted. Shivering, the lizard dropped the bag of marshmallows on the ground.

What a wondrous phenomenon! He could wield magic too!

"Give up, thief!" Homare shouted at the lizard. Heat crept around his palm, and he pressed it against the kite-shaped creature. The lizard grimaced, slipped off Hisoka's hands, and crept away without a word.

Hisoka picked up the bag of marshmallows and tore it open. Smiling, he began stuffing his mouth with the sweets.

"My apologies, I only brought one bag," Homare told Hisoka with a long face. "I did not expect things to go this way."

Hisoka was too busy enjoying the marshmallows to answer him. However, all Homare needed was the little guy giving him a fond gaze; Hisoka rarely did that, especially when he had marshmallows in his hands.

Homare returned the smile. "Shall we go back home?"

"You know the way?"

"We will find it together. I promise."


	4. Knight and Queen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My goal with this project? Ship the entire Winter with each other. Also, this chapter contains spoilers for Act 8.

Every morning, Tasuku would always jog along the street of Veludo Way with Guy. If Tasuku had to be honest, it was as exhilarating as acting itself. Back in God Troupe, such freedom didn't exist.

Even if the Director would ask nothing in return, Tasuku would do whatever he could to repay the favor. Returning to the dorm in time and attending the morning rehearsals were few of the many things.

When he'd just joined Mankai, the dorm looked as dreary as God Troupe theater; the courtyard had nothing but a few trees, a wooden path, and a bench. Now, with sunlight spraying down from the sky and butterflies fluttering around the colorful flower beds, it was so vibrant.

Tsumugi and Azuma didn't look lively however. If anything, they looked worried. So worried that the usually poker-faced Guy approached them with a concerned face.

"What is the matter?" Guy asked.

"Hisoka and Homare are missing," Tsumugi replied. "We searched the dorm but couldn't find them."

Tasuku sighed. "Those two guys…" Those two problem children, he'd sometimes call them, even though they were older than him.

Indeed, the only thing "adult" about Winter Troupe was everyone's age. This included him, who would still squabble with Tsumugi whenever they talked about drawing Zabi the dog.

"Did you happen to see them on your way back here?" Azuma asked.

"If we had, we'd have dragged them home," Tasuku replied.

"Are you sure that you've checked the entire dorm?" Guy asked.

"We're just about to check the Unopening Door," Azuma replied with a somber look on his face.

Tasuku knew that look all too well; it was the same expression Azuma would make whenever he'd be alone again. Tasuku had once experienced the feeling of being alone, and it wasn't pleasant at all. He had nobody to talk to back when he was in God Troupe; there were only rivals staring at him like ravenous beasts. If he had something in his mind, if he fumbled during rehearsals or on the stage, nobody would offer him a pair of listening ears or hold his hands and pull him back up.

With a determined face, he told Azuma, "You aren't going in there by yourself. Besides, if you're somehow locked up, we'll find a way to get you out."

Azuma's eyes widened. Then he smiled. "I didn't expect to hear that directly from you."

Tsumugi laughed softly. "He can be honest with his feelings when necessary."

And that was why sometimes Tasuku would rather keep quiet. But sometimes, not speaking up might cause more problems... What a dilemma.

Tasuku growled. "You guys…" He turned away and began walking towards the Unopening Door, which rested on the wall across them. Its pinkish hue reminded Tasuku of the door prop God Troupe often used for fantasy plays.

He opened the door and saw nothing but darkness. The sunlight somehow couldn't pour into the room and illuminate things. He raised an eyebrow; what kind of joke was this? Then his expression darkened. If Homare and Hisoka were really in here, they might be in serious trouble.

Without much consideration, he stepped into the darkness. "Mikage! Arisugawa! You hear me?"

The door slammed shut. It was nothing to be worried about to be honest, as Tasuku knew that his troupe mates would find a way to open it later. But when he turned, he saw no door. The wall had vanished as well.

"Crap!" Tasuku dashed to where the door was supposed to be, only to bump into something- no, someone. He recognized that groan and really hoped that he was wrong.

"Tasuku?"

His eyes widened in horror. "Azuma, why did you follow me?"

"You could always use a company."

Damn this guy. It was _Azuma_ of all people who could always use a company.

Tasuku hissed. "I don't need any right now! It's pitch black here and you might hurt yourself!" Then he cupped his mouth, before mumbling, "Sorry." Yelling at Azuma always felt so wrong, no matter the reason. Tasuku often wondered why.

Amid the silence, he heard chirping birds and rustling leaves. Then his nose detected an earthy scent. And the room suddenly lit up, revealing trees and shrubs everywhere.

What the hell? What kind of room would have the sun shining in all its glory up in the clear blue sky? What kind of room would look like a vast maze made of towering palisades of trees? How could they get outta there?

"Tasuku, look." Azuma pointed at a screen on the floor, surrounded by moldy logs. It displayed an arrow and "File City." Then the arrow changed its direction, and the text became "Drill Tunnel."

File City? Drill Tunnel? Knowing those places, Tasuku sighed. Damn, this was just crazy. However, he didn't have a choice, did he? Moreover, he had Hisoka and Homare to worry about; some Digimon weren't friendly at all.

"Leave this to me," he said. "I know this place."

Azuma blinked. "You know it?"

"This is File Island, a place from Digimon universe. It varies from series to series. This one seems to be based on the old game Digimon World." He looked up at the sky with a long face. How he missed his days as a kid; he'd play the game on weekends, watch his Airdramon evolve to Megadramon, and let it beat the crap out of his big bro's MetalGreymon.

"Tasuku?"

Tasuku shifted his gaze to Azuma. "I used to play the game with my big bro."

Azuma smiled. "Your big brother is a nice guy, isn't he?"

Although Tasuku was no expert in reading people like Tsumugi, that smile looked painful. He understood why, and it stopped him from saying, _"He's very annoying sometimes."_

"Cherish him."

Tasuku's heart clenched. Those two words wouldn't have hurt that much if he'd never learned that Azuma's big brother had long departed from this world.

With a lump forming in his throat, he murmured, "Yes. You too, take good care of your brother's hair comb, all right?"

"Of course. Well, I have to thank _you_ for finding it." Tears welled in Azuma's eyes. "If you hadn't insisted on following me that night, the hair comb would've disappeared along with my family house."

Tasuku smiled. "It's okay." He really wanted to hug Azuma now, to let Azuma know that he'd always offer him a shoulder to cry on, but wouldn't Azuma tease him endlessly afterwards?

Oh, screw it. Tasuku would make an exception this time. Somehow, he felt like a big brother this way, although Azuma was older than him. Perhaps it was because of Azuma's slender build, in contrast to his muscular build. Azuma was shorter than him too.

Instead of teasing him, much to his delight, Azuma said, "I'm glad to have joined Mankai."

"Glad to have you around."

If members of the other troupes in Mankai had heard that, they would've seen Tasuku as a theater nerd who meant to say, _"Azuma's charm is an asset for the theater."_ However, Winter Troupe, especially Tsumugi, knew that Tasuku meant something else. Without Mankai, Azuma would've continued his life as a professional cuddler; his fear of morning would've continued to eat away at him as he watched his clients leave him at dawn.

"Oh my, are we interrupting a secret tryst in the forest?"

Tasuku knew that voice all too well. Letting go of Azuma, he turned and glared daggers at Homare. "It's nothing, Arisugawa."

Then his gaze fell to Hisoka, who was dozing off against Homare's side while hugging Pen Pen. Tasuku scratched his head. Hisoka could sleep on the forest floor without a fuss, yet Tasuku found a lot more dirt on Homare's pajamas.

"What happened, Homare?" Azuma asked. "You look rather beat-up."

Hisoka opened his eyes, or perhaps eye? Tasuku always assumed the former, even if Hisoka had never lifted his bangs to reveal his other eye or talked about it.

"It's not Arisu if he doesn't get into trouble." Then Hisoka closed his eyes again.

Homare glowered at Hisoka. "You woke up only to say that?"

Tasuku shrugged. "I agree with Mikage."

Homare stared at Tasuku and wagged a fist. "Not you too, Tasuku!"

Azuma chuckled. "Now, now, why don't we talk about getting out of here?"

"Ah, right. So, I'm familiar with this world. It's based on Digimon World, an old game I used to play with my big bro." Tasuku pointed at the screen on the floor, which had the direction to File City right now. "In the game, we'd first arrive at File City and-"

"What an interesting name." Homare smiled broadly. "My poetic spirit stirs!" He twirled around like a ballerina, and the sleeping Hisoka fell; fortunately, he woke up just in time to regain his balance.

"You're so annoying," Hisoka grumbled.

"Files, data, and codes," Homare recited, "megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte-"

Tasuku facepalmed. "Good grief."

He was sure as hell that their journey would be rowdy.


	5. Nostalgia

When Tsumugi first arrived in the forest, he'd tried contacting everyone, both his missing troupe mates and those who were at the dorm, but his phone had no signal at all. Maybe being at the foot of a mountain had something to do with it.

Now he only had a flashlight to help his search, but what could it do? The sun was still shining. Not that the flashlight had done any good before this; it revealed nothing but endless darkness in the "room" within the Unopening Door. His other item was a bag of marshmallows for Hisoka, which Homare had kept in Tsumugi's room - one of Homare's many hiding spots for the sweets.

Beads of sweat dribbled down Tsumugi's body as his feet shuffled through the detritus on the ground. If he'd known that behind the Unopening Door lay a forest, he'd have worn a loose t-shirt instead of a sweatshirt. Not only the sunlight was beating down upon him, but also thinking about his missing troupe mates made him feel uneasy. A beast could jump out of the shrubs and attack anyone; as strong as Tasuku was, he couldn't possibly handle it. Hisoka could probably flee and hide with his cat-like agility, but others… Homare and Azuma would be in danger.

As Tsumugi walked ahead, something sparkled in the distance. He rushed to it and found a metallic frame, with a screen on its center. A thin layer of dried leaves covered it.

Tsumugi swept away the leaves with his feet, and a smile crept into his lips when he saw what was on the screen: an arrow pointing to the northeast with the text "Jijimon's House." Then the arrow pointed to the south, and the text became "Native Forest."

With Tasuku's immense knowledge of this world, everyone should be safe; he was a huge fan of Digimon series after all. It didn't quite rub off on Tsumugi though, at least for the games. Tsumugi remembered playing Digimon World at Tasuku's house and not knowing how to bring his Patamon to the toilet, which had resulted in the Patamon evolving to a Sukamon.

Tsumugi followed the direction to Jijimon's House, or File City, a place where Tasuku should lead others to. Knowing little about surviving in the wilderness, he thought of mimicking Hisoka: move, hide behind a tree, and survey the area. If he saw no wild Digimon, he'd move, hide, and survey the area again, and so on.

Another screen lay further in front of him, at which Tsumugi smiled broadly. In the game this section was one screen away from File City.

Twigs snapped behind him.

Gulping, Tsumugi slowly turned. A lime green lizard stood there, its pair of red eyes staring at the bag of marshmallows in his hand.

From what he remembered, one could never negotiate with a wild Digimon in the game.

Even if giving up the bag of marshmallows would make the Digimon go away, Tsumugi wouldn't do it; he'd brought it for Hisoka after all. Yet if he ran, the ModokiBetamon would simply emit bolts of electricity from its body and incapacitate him.

As the ModokiBetamon drew closer, Tsumugi assumed the fiercest look he could muster and pointed the flashlight at the Digimon. "Get lost!" He wondered what the delinquents of Mankai would say if they saw him like this.

The ModokiBetamon returned the glare, electricity crackling across its body. Tsumugi's heart pounded. His hands trembled.

Click!

A massive ray of light shot out of his flashlight. The ModokiBetamon shrieked, its eyes screwed shut as the electric currents faded.

Tsumugi scurried, his limbs shaky and cold. No more sneaking around. No need to think about whatever strengthened the flashlight. Just run as fast as possible from the blinded Digimon.

Five silhouettes of grown-up men stood in the distance. Despite running out of breath, Tsumugi sped up.

"Tsumugi!"

Tsumugi wanted to laugh at Tasuku for being a worrywart as always, but the tightness in his chest prevented him from doing so. His legs faltered as soon as he reached the silhouettes, his troupe mates, and he collapsed. The flashlight and the bag of marshmallows slipped out of his grasp. Hisoka immediately snatched the bag of sweets.

Tsumugi landed on a pair of muscular arms. At that, he realized how sore his body, especially his legs, felt.

"What happened?" Tasuku asked, kneeling beside him.

"A w-wild Digimon..." Tsumugi huffed.

"Tsukioka, here." Guy gave him a bottle of water.

Tsumugi's eyes widened. "Guy? Weren't y-you supposed to-"

"He came along," Tasuku cut in. "Once you went into the room, the Unopening Door closed and disappeared. He immediately told the Director about it, but when he came back to where the door was, it reappeared."

Tsumugi nodded as he took and drank from the water bottle. Having fresh water running down his parched throat felt heavenly.

"I asked the Director to keep the door open as I entered the room," Guy continued, "but she somehow broke the door handle. Then the door closed and disappeared."

"I have a feeling that she never broke it," Tasuku responded. "It might be the door's doing."

"Magic?" Hisoka muttered, standing behind Guy, between Homare and Azuma.

"Magic, huh?" Wiping the water off his lips with his sleeve, Tsumugi handed the half-empty bottle to Guy. "Something strange happened to me earlier." He slowly stood up and picked up the flashlight. "A ModokiBetamon attacked me. I tried to scare it off with this, but for some reason, its light got really bright. It blinded the Digimon."

"Tsumugi knows Digimon?" Azuma asked.

"Weird," Hisoka said.

Tsumugi laughed softly. "Well, I used to watch the anime and play the games with Tasuku. Tasuku is really into the series, especially Digimon Frontier because it's so much like sentai shows."

"Isn't Digimon a series for kids?" Azuma chuckled. "How cute."

"He often roleplayed as the brothers with-" A hand to his mouth cut him off.

"Zip it, Tsumugi!" Tasuku scolded, his face reddening in anger and embarrassment.

"I think roleplaying can help improve our acting," Guy said. "I often did it with Citronia back in Zafra."

Tsumugi noticed the downturn of Guy's lips. That should happen before Guy learned to feel and express emotion like a human, shouldn't it? Citron probably scolded Guy a lot for being so robotic.

"I guess you have a point." Tasuku let go of Tsumugi. "I used to roleplay as Kouji from Digimon Frontier."

"And your brother would roleplay as Kouichi, right?" Tsumugi smiled. "Why don't you try doing the Spirit Evolution thing?"

"I suppose that could count as an acting practice." Tasuku walked away from everyone and turned to face them. Standing still, he reached out a hand, as if holding a D-Scanner gadget and showing it to everybody. Then he closed his eyes and made a wide, sweeping arm movement.

"Tasuku, isn't that Kouichi's style?"

Tasuku swiped his hand against the non-existent D-Scanner. "Spirit Evolution!"

Two lions made of writhing black energy burst out of the ground and swirled around Tasuku. Tsumugi's jaw dropped in disbelief, but then he heard everyone's collective gasp. This was real.

The lions accelerated and engulfed Tasuku in a cyclone of dark energy. Then everything dispersed and faded, revealing a man in a black armor. Its helmet, pauldrons, chestplate, and kneepads came in the shape of a lion's head.

"Lowemon!" the armored man shouted. Then he looked at his hands. "What the hell is this? I really evolved?"

"You did, Tasuku!"

"Fascinating!" Homare exclaimed from behind Tsumugi. "I shall try-"

"You better not!" Tasuku shouted.

"You'll set the forest on fire," Hisoka deadpanned.

"Excuse me?"

Tsumugi shifted his gaze to Homare, who had his eyebrows pulled down and together as he glowered at Hisoka. "Homare's element is Fire?"

"He melts Mikage's ice easily," Tasuku replied, "and one of our water bottles by accident."

"Arisu is a natural disaster."

Homare clenched his fists. "How rude!"

Azuma patted Homare's back. "There, there, Homare."

"You can try evolving once we're at File City," Tsumugi added with a smile. He looked at Tasuku, who stood there as Lowemon, his arms folded over his chest. "You're now playing Fuyuki's role, huh?" Tsumugi approached Tasuku. "As Kouichi and Lowemon."

"Honestly, you're more fitting as Kouichi. He's kind and gentle, just like you." Tasuku sighed. "Kouji is rather cold and aloof."

"Just like you." Tsumugi chuckled. "Anyway, why do you think that my element is Light?"

Tasuku pointed at the flashlight; although the leonine helmet left only his eyes visible, Tsumugi could guess that Tasuku was smiling. "Your story said so."

"We really are like the two brothers, aren't we?"

"I guess." Tasuku walked past Tsumugi. "Let's move. It's no good to stay this long in a forest."

"You aren't reverting?"

"I'll do it later." Tasuku motioned everyone to follow him. "Come on, guys."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who aren't familiar with Digimon Frontier, there is a meaning behind Kouichi's and Kouji's name. The kanji means "shine" and has "one" and "two" respectively, with Kouichi as the older brother.


	6. Spirit Evolution

To Azuma, File City felt more like a small town than a city. Standing atop an asphalt ground with white markings similar to the tracks of a circuit board, the business district consisted of only a shop, a restaurant, a clinic, and a bulletin board. In the middle of the district, a ball-shaped Digimon with a large horn bounced around the fountain.

The Digimon smiled. "Oh, visitors!" It approached everyone. "Welcome to File City. I'm Tsunomon, one of the inhabitants of this little town."

"Hmm, File City looks kinda lonely compared to what I know," Tasuku, still in Lowemon form, commented.

Homare pointed upwards with an index finger. "Then allow me to liven it up with a poem-"

"No," Hisoka grumbled from beside him, hugging Pen Pen and a bag of marshmallows.

Tsunomon blinked. "Poem? Can I hear it?"

"You are such a cultured child!" Homare cleared his throat before making a sleeping gesture. "A lonely town, in the middle of nowhere, slumbering and snoring like an unearthed fossil..."

Tasuku sighed. "That's gonna make things sleepier than they've ever been."

"Now, now, Tasuku," Tsumugi said, "Homare is trying his best."

Azuma laughed softly. Another hour, another commotion started by Homare. It was a tame one, he'd say, thanks to Tsumugi's interference. Sometimes, the commotion could lead to Homare calling Tasuku a plebeian and Tasuku yelling at Homare; if the bickering progressed, Tasuku might end up on the verge of punching Homare in the face.

What a cute duo, Azuma thought.

Tsunomon looked up at Tsumugi. "Did you call Lowemon 'Tasuku?' It's weird to call a Digimon not by its species name in Digital World."

"We're not from this world," Tasuku replied. "I performed 'Spirit Evolution' movements and became a Digimon."

"Spirit Evolution?"

"It's like this!" Homare strode towards the fountain and turned to face everyone. "Watch me!" He reached out a hand, as if holding a D-Scanner and showing it to everybody. Then he spread his arms and swung them.

"That's not the right pose, Arisugawa," Tasuku told Homare. "Only my character has that pose. Others are pretty simple."

Homare swiped his hand against the non-existent object in his other hand. "Spirit Evolution!"

Nothing happened.

Homare scratched his head. "What did I do wrong?"

"Your pose. Watch this." Tasuku reached out a hand. A moment later, he crossed his arms and swiped the hand against the non-existent D-Scanner in his other hand. "Spirit Evolution!"

"It looks...simple." Homare shrugged. "I cannot express my artistic sense with it."

Just as Tasuku opened his mouth to speak, Tsumugi cut in with his usual gentle smile, "It's kinda like acting practice, isn't it? Since you often struggle to play 'simple' characters, why don't you give it a try, Homare?"

"You have a point."

Azuma chuckled. Love for theater was contagious, wasn't it? Winter Troupe started off with only Tsumugi and Tasuku as theater nerds; others merely joined the troupe for personal reasons that barely had any connection with acting. Now, Winter Troupe consisted of entirely theater nerds.

Homare copied Tasuku's movements. As expected, Homare moved his arms a bit more slowly, as if out of his habit of being "elegant."

"Add more power!" Tasuku barked. "Your character is a hot-blooded one!"

"Spirit Evolution!"

Just as Homare shouted that, a raging twister of flames engulfed his body. Then it faded, revealing a man in a crimson armor. Three horns protruded from his mask. His long, spiky blonde hair swayed in the breeze.

"Agnimon!" Homare shouted. "Ah, the knowledge of Digimon flooded my brain once I evolved!" His armored body burned. "Oho, I feel a rush of inspiration!" He cleared his throat. "Burning salamander, blazing salamander, I spew flames like a flamethrower…"

Tasuku sighed. "Agnimon isn't this noisy in show."

"Homare looks happy though," Azuma told Tasuku. "I'm sure that everyone would love to evolve into fantastical creatures."

"That'd work for kids. We aren't kids."

Azuma smirked. "I thought you and Tsumugi would still argue about whoever draws a dog better."

Tsumugi blushed. "Azuma, uh…"

"Old habits die hard." Tasuku had to be blushing under that leonine helmet, Azuma knew. Then Tasuku looked away. "Huh? Mikage?"

Hisoka ran towards Homare and showed the armored man his bag of marshmallows. "Arisu, roast them for me."

"You are such a spoiled child!" The fire around Homare's body died away. "Not right now. That is your last bag of marshmallows."

"For once, you're saying something sensible, Arisugawa," Tasuku said. "Anyway, we'd better find a way to get outta here."

Hisoka looked down with a long face. "But roasted marshmallows…"

"We can always roast marshmallows back at home." When Hisoka looked at the shop, Tasuku added, "I don't recall any shop selling marshmallows here."

"Right, there isn't any," Tsunomon said. "Why don't you visit Jijimon? He might know something about your world and Spirit Evolution." Tsunomon hopped towards the path between the restaurant and the shop. "Follow me."

Everyone followed Tsunomon, with Azuma and Guy at the back, walking slowly. Azuma looked at Guy, whose poker face couldn't really hide his gloomy mood.

Was it that he, one of Winter Troupe's most passionate theater nerds, wanted to try those poses too? Something seemed to hold him back; knowing Guy, Azuma was sure that it wasn't a lack of confidence.

"Something's bothering you?" Azuma asked. "You don't feel like the usual you."

"I'd like to strike those poses and evolve like Takato and Arisugawa, but…" Guy's poker face finally faded into a sad look. "I remember that you're afraid of bugs."

That reminded Azuma of the quick overview of _Digimon Frontier_ Tasuku told them earlier, which had suddenly left Guy in a somber mood. There were ten elements in the universe, with six of them wielded by the chosen children. Each element would transform a child into a different Digimon.

During their search for Tsumugi, Guy had walked through ModokiBetamon's bolts of electricity without a fuss. He'd evolve to Blitzmon, a beetle Digimon who wielded the Thunder element.

"That's very considerate of you." Azuma laughed softly. "I appreciate it, you know? But I believe I can make an exception for you, Guy."

"Are you sure?"

Azuma nodded. "You're a kind person. I'm sure that when you evolve, you'll still be the kind Guy I know, even if you're a bug."

Guy smiled. "Very well. I shall ask Takato about my pose later."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JP - Dub names  
> Agnimon - Agunimon  
> Blitzmon - Beetlemon
> 
> Well, yes, it'd have been funnier if Azuma got Fire element instead of Homare because of VA stuff, but I can't really see the calm and chill Azuma being fiery lol.


	7. Jijimon's Lecture

Jijimon's house didn't seem far different from a house in the human world, at least from what Guy had seen. It stood at the seaside, with an exterior that looked just like an ordinary two-story house. It had a chimney and a TV antenna on its roof.

In a world full of monsters of various shapes and forms, Jijimon looked like an odd one out, especially when it stood at the doorstep of such a normal house. The Digimon had human limbs and a very dense white mullet and facial hair that concealed its face.

Jijimon looked more like an old hermit from the human world, Guy would say, especially with that staff and tattered tunic. The staff also had a beast's paw on its end.

Right after Tsumugi had introduced Winter Troupe, Jijimon pointed its staff at Homare and Tasuku. "You two! Revert now!" Guy wondered why Jijimon sounded so stern; was there the danger of evolution or something?

"Oh, right, there's no need to stay in this form," Tasuku replied. "Listen up, Arisugawa. You only need to will yourself to revert." Dark energy wrapped around him and transformed him into a cocoon of writhing darkness. Then it cleared, and Tasuku was back as a human. Huffing, he wiped the sweat off his temple with the sleeve of his hoodie. "It feels like I've just run to the park without a break..."

"Is that so?" Fire engulfed Homare. Then it faded, revealing Homare in his human form, a bit pale and hunched. He was panting and sweating.

"Arisu?" Hisoka asked.

"That reminds me," Azuma said, "Homare hasn't had his breakfast, has he?"

Homare toppled. Tasuku caught him in his arms and gave him a worried look; Guy noticed that Tasuku wanted to speak, but couldn't. Instead, Tasuku lifted Homare as if he were a fragile princess.

"You are such a knight in shining armor," Homare commented amid his ragged breathing.

"Save your breath, you idiot!"

"It's amazing how you didn't pass out after all that." Jijimon opened the door to his house and wagged a finger. "Come in. We need to talk."

Everyone followed Jijimon into the house; Hisoka walking without needing anyone's support was a rare sight. Hisoka hadn't taken his eyes off Homare ever since Homare reverted and collapsed.

With a long face, Guy looked at Tsumugi, then Azuma. Tasuku often complained how these two, Azuma in particular, had the lowest stamina among their troupe.

"You look worried, Guy," Azuma began.

"Yukishiro, you and Tsukioka shouldn't evolve," Guy replied.

"Huh?" Azuma's eyes widened. Then he smiled. "Oh, I think I get what you mean."

"Please leave everything to me and Takato."

"You guys are overprotective." Azuma chuckled. "Anyway, thank you."

Guy smiled. "You're welcome."

Just like the exterior, the interior also looked like something from the human world. The lounge consisted of three couches, an aircon, a wooden table, and a TV. Further at the back a door and a staircase lay.

Guy felt something off with the two toys in the lounge though: a gigantic yellow bear plushie and a big tin wind-up robot. They lay there, completely immobile, but Tasuku had been eyeing them since he stepped into the house.

"This Digital World is pretty different from what I know." Tasuku put Homare down on the couch. "Jijimon's house is a lot bigger here and… Well, there's Monzaemon in the house too, but I never thought that it'd have Blikmon around." He approached the tin robot and looked at its winding key. "Seems like Blikmon won't react to strangers, just like in the game."

Guy's gaze fell to Blikmon's chest, which had a glass pane that showed the gears within. "A mechanical heart..."

 _A Clockwork Heart_ , Guy suddenly remembered. Citron often compared Guy to S, a homunculus from said play, both mockingly and fondly: mockingly because Guy didn't really understand human emotion like S, fondly because Guy's existence helped Citron play S' character well.

Guy shifted his gaze to Homare, who was looking less pale now and lying on the couch, with his head resting on the penguin plush on Hisoka's lap; a very rare sight, Guy thought, especially with Hisoka feeding his marshmallows to Homare. Homare's lover once called Homare a broken cyborg, didn't she? And Homare often talked about how mechanical he was, didn't he? Guy couldn't really understand why; Homare was so expressive, unlike him.

Strange. He'd been with Winter Troupe for more than a year, yet he still didn't understand everyone well.

The door at the back of the lounge flung open, and Jijimon emerged with a tray containing empty glasses and a jug of water in its hands. Guy and Tasuku headed to a couch and sat down.

Jijimon placed the tray on the table. "Sorry, but I got no food for your friend. Vegimon gives me just enough to feed the three mouths in this house."

Guy pointed at Monzaemon and Blikmon. "Stuffed toys and robots need to eat?"

"They're Digimon, Guy," Tasuku explained. "They still need to eat even if they're a skeleton or a ghost."

"Correct. We're made of data, while we lose some data daily, even if we don't fight. Eating is a way to replace the lost data." Jijimon filled the glasses with water from the jug. "Well, if you wanna eat, then you gotta work. You can help out at our farm or item shop, or you can gather some food from the forest. If you know how to fish, you can use my old fishing set and fish at the sea."

"Fishing?" Guy blinked. Then he smiled. "I like fishing."

"You've got this, Guy!" Tsumugi cheered.

"You can fish there?" Tasuku picked up a glass of water from the table and drank from it. "I thought you could only fish at Dragon Eye Lake."

"You sure know a lot about Digital World."

"Well, I was really into Digimon series."

Tsumugi grinned. "Tasuku is still a Digimon fan until now."

Tasuku slammed his glass against the table. "Shut up, Tsumugi!"

"That's good to hear. Your knowledge will come in handy." Jijimon cleared his throat. "Speaking of fishing spots, the best fish are at Dragon Eye Lake, but it's pretty far from here. We mostly count on the farm for food though."

"I suppose I can help out at the shop." Azuma looked at Tsumugi, whose eyes sparkled in excitement. "You look so eager to visit the farm."

"I look forward to learning about growing meat."

Hisoka's eye widened as the marshmallow slipped out of his hand; Homare caught it with his mouth. "Growing meat?"

"You can grow meat like a plant?" Guy asked.

"Only in Digital World," Tasuku answered. "Vegimon runs a huge meat farm."

"What a wondrous world!" Homare sat up. "A world of monsters and magic… Tralala, I can feel inspiration welling up in me!"

Tasuku scowled. "This guy's energy…"

"I shouldn't have fed you," Hisoka grumbled.

Homare rambled, "Meat and carrots, sprouting out of the earth-"

Jijimon banged a fist against the table. "Attention please! You all need to know the danger of Spirit Evolution!"

"Listen up, Arisu!" Hisoka yelled.

"You're the last person I want to hear that from!" Homare yelled back, staring at Hisoka. "Don't fall asleep!"

Tasuku facepalmed. "Good grief."

"It's a matter of life and death, you man-children!" Jijimon snapped.

"Man-children…" Guy's face sagged. That sounded insulting, especially when directed at a troupe full of adults.

"Jijimon, just talk," Tasuku said with a frown. "I'll explain to them later."

"Very well."

Hisoka and Homare calmed down just right in time, but whereas Homare sat still and scrutinized Jijimon like an eager student, Hisoka dozed off against Homare's side.

Homare shook Hisoka. "Goodness, Hisoka! Now's not the time!"

"Quiet, Arisu," Hisoka mumbled.

"Oh, well… I'll start talking." Jijimon shrugged. "As you've seen, Spirit Evolution is very draining. You can't evolve if you're very sick or badly injured. But what's worse than that? To evolve, you'll be borrowing energy from Digital World itself. If you evolve too much, the world will become unstable. Horrible things can happen."

"Such as?" Guy asked.

"The world might disappear, along with you all."

Guy gulped as he looked at Azuma and Tsumugi. They really shouldn't evolve.

Azuma returned the gaze and chuckled. "Well, it seems like I won't get to see Guy as Blitzmon anytime soon. We shouldn't evolve when not necessary, correct?"

Jijimon nodded. "Yeah."

"Oh, right, Azuma is afraid of bugs," Tsumugi commented with a worried face. "Will you be okay with Guy evolving?"

"If the bug is Guy, I don't mind," Azuma replied.

Guy smiled. "I'm glad, Yukishiro."

"Also, there's one more thing about Spirit Evolution," Jijimon added. "Earlier, you've evolved into Human Form. In that form, you can access the powerful Beast Form via Slide Evolution. Be careful though. You may lose control of yourself."

"Can't we simply revert?" Guy asked.

"How can you revert when you can't even control yourself?" Jijimon ran its fingers through its hair. "If things get bad enough, you'll have to wound the Digimon until it reverts."

"I remember that you need to badly injure a Digimon to force it to revert." Tsumugi looked down with a sad face. "I hope we won't have to resort to that."

Azuma patted Tsumugi's back. "I'd like to believe that there's another way." He looked at Jijimon. "Can we calm the Digimon with a talk?"

Jijimon nodded. "It has a low chance of success however."

Tsumugi looked back up, sadness still clouding his visage. "Is there another way?"

"Not really a solution, but someone with a calm mind can probably control the Beast Form right off the bat."

Guy and Azuma exchanged glances and smiled. Azuma always seemed to read him so easily, but for some reason, Guy could read Azuma quite easily too.

"Looks like Azuma and Guy can pull it off," Tasuku commented. "Now, last question. How can we go back to our world?"

"I can open a portal to your world, but I'll need some materials." Jijimon scratched his head. "I forgot the needed items, but I kept my notes somewhere." Heading towards the door at the back of the lounge, he pointed at the staircase. "While I search for my notes, why don't you go to my guest room? Feel free to stay there."

"Thanks." Tsumugi rose from his seat with a smile. Motioning everyone towards the staircase, he said, "Come on, everyone."

After drinking a glass of water, Homare held Hisoka's hand and pulled him up. "Up we go, Hisoka!"

Hisoka remained asleep while standing up, leaning against Homare's side. He retained a firm grip on his bag of marshmallows and Pen Pen however.

Homare groaned. "I do not wish to drag you up the stairs."

Hisoka wouldn't like that, Guy knew. Imagine your body slamming against the steps as the person who dragged you ascended the staircase...

"Then allow me." Guy approached them and picked Hisoka up in his arms like a little kid, like what he'd often do to Citron when the man was younger.

"Ah, thank you, Guy," Homare told him.

"You're welcome."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JP - Dub names
> 
> Blikmon - Tinmon  
> Vegimon - Vegiemon
> 
> On another note, Blikmon is one of the "Lost Digimon" in the franchise. It appears in Digimon World and Digimon World 2, both of which are very old PSOne games, but afterwards, it's never brought up again.


	8. A Mechanical Heart

If Homare had to be honest, everything in this world was so convenient that it was absurd. The guest room having six beds? Weird, but passable as just a coincidence. The guest room having six wardrobes, with each of them containing everyone's daily outfits? This was sillier than the silliest deus ex machina in stories.

However, Digital World was a magical world; if urban legends could come out of the blue to help Winter Troupe in the real world, then the "deus ex machina" wasn't that ridiculous at all.

Homare would need some time to adapt to taking a bath in the bathroom though; it only had a tap, a dipper, and a big bucket. Fortunately he could always heat up the water, but then Hisoka would complain that it was too hot and cool it off.

Once done with the bath and dressed in his training outfit, Homare dragged the sleeping Hisoka out of the bathroom and into their bedroom; if he'd had the strength, he'd have carried Hisoka like a bride. He could actually heat up the water some more to keep Hisoka awake, but waking up his little friend roughly was the last thing he'd ever want to do.

Tsumugi greeted him, "Oh, Homare! We're just done discussing our food gathering plan."

"Jijimon has given me the list of items for the portal, but we'll talk about that later. Since you haven't had your breakfast, we thought you're better off resting here," Tasuku explained. "But if you can, you're welcome to help. Azuma and Guy already set off."

"I am not sitting idly by as my dearest troupe mates work themselves to the bone." Homare's stomach rumbled, at which he scowled. "I apologize for my indecency."

Tsumugi smiled. "Don't push yourself too hard."

"As for you, Mikage…" Tasuku stared at Hisoka, who was dozing off against Homare's slightly wobbly legs. "You're exploring Native Forest with me."

"Don't wanna," Hisoka mumbled.

"Then don't blame me if we end up with nothing but meat for lunch."

Hisoka opened his eye and gave the floor a wistful gaze. "Meat…"

"You'll usually find mushrooms and fruits everywhere in the forest, but since this Digital World is different from what we know, there might be marshmallows," Tsumugi said.

Hisoka sprang to his feet. "I'll go."

"You aren't making any sense here, Tsumugi," Tasuku grumbled.

Tsumugi chuckled. "Jijimon's guest room already makes no sense."

"Indeed, there is no logical explanation behind everything in this world." Homare sat on a bed. "Why don't we stop fussing over realism and simply savor the wonders of Digital World?"

Tsumugi nodded. "Homare is right. Sometimes there are things that are not meant to be understood, like the urban legends of Mankai."

Tasuku sighed. "I still can't believe how Digital World can exist behind that stupid door."

"Let's go, Tasuku." Hisoka grabbed Tasuku's hand and pulled him away.

"Oi, Mikage!" Tasuku exclaimed as he and Hisoka drew closer to the door.

Tsumugi laughed. "Sorry, watching someone as small as Hisoka dragging you around is just funny."

"Shut up!"

Once Tasuku and Hisoka left the room and slammed the door shut, Tsumugi commented, "Hisoka really loves marshmallows, doesn't he?"

"He should consider expanding his palate," Homare replied. "Marshmallows do not have much nutritional value."

The door opened with a creak, and a wind-up tin robot flew into the room, with a tray in its pincer-like hands. A bowl of glazed carrots, a glass of water, and a spoon rested atop the tray.

"Blikmon?" Tsumugi asked.

Blikmon flew to Homare and handed him the tray. "You can have some of my ration." Before Homare could respond, the robot had bolted out of the bedroom and closed the door.

"You're lucky, Homare," Tsumugi said. "Blikmon never talks to strangers."

Homare shrugged. "It did not even give me the chance to express my gratitude." Then he smirked. "Ah, I have an idea! I shall compose a poem for it!"

"Sounds like a plan." Tsumugi headed towards the door and opened it. "I'm off to the farm. If you still don't feel well, just rest up, okay?"

"Worry not, Tsumugi. I am certain that this meal will replenish my strength in a blink of an eye."

Tsumugi looked into Homare's eyes for a moment, as if sensing deceit. Of course, carrots would never be as filling as meat, but Tsumugi already had enough things to worry about.

"See you later." And with that, Tsumugi left. That was Winter Troupe leader for you: never digging deeper than necessary.

Homare placed the tray on the desk beside the bed and wolfed down the carrots; if his grandmother saw the way he ate, she'd certainly complain. A gentleman wasn't supposed to bring his face to the food and shovel everything into his mouth, but Homare's primal instinct demanded otherwise. It didn't help that he also loved carrots.

The most gentlemanly thing he could do right now was returning the tray.

Done with his breakfast, Homare picked up the tray and began making his way to the kitchen downstairs. Somehow he could run down the stairs and towards the kitchen without falling, without breaking a sweat, a feat he could never achieve in the real world. Perhaps it was his magical power. Or perhaps the meal had something to do with this.

After setting down the tray on the sink, he scrutinized the basket of vegetables on the dining table. His eyes widened at the carrots, which had a pair of little arms growing out of the upper part of its body. They looked quite fleshy, or perhaps muscular, as the carrots resembled bodybuilders flexing their biceps.

His poetic spirit stirred, and he dashed away from the kitchen and into the living room. Jijimon stood between the immobile Blikmon and a gigantic yellow bear plushie.

Homare's gaze immediately fell to the glass pane on Blikmon's chest, behind which a motionless mesh of gears lay. His lips took a downturn as he wondered if his poem, which was meant to be felt and not thought, could touch the robot's mechanical heart.

Perhaps this would be similar to reading a poem to his grandmother, whom his grandfather called "mechanical" in a fond, loving way.

"What's the matter, human?" Jijimon asked, jarring Homare back to reality.

"I would like to thank Blikmon for the meal." Homare cleared his throat. "Crunchy, fleshy, juicy, they unleashed a rush of beta carotene into my bloodstream…" He spread his arms and looked up. "Ah, blessed be the existence of _la carotte_!"

Jijimon scratched its head with the paw on its staff. " _La carotte_?"

"What do you think of it, Blikmon?" Homare asked. "I composed it for you as a thanks for the meal."

Blikmon's winding key rotated, and the gears within its chest whirred and spun. "It's good." The robot sounded rather plain, almost like that time when Homare's grandmother commented on his very first poem.

At this rate, Homare had better expect the worst; how could he understand Digimon, when he couldn't even understand humans?

Blikmon's winding key stopped moving, and so did the gears. Just as Homare forced a smile and turned to leave the house, Jijimon said, "Blikmon is bad with emotions, you know? If it didn't appreciate your poem, it could've just stayed inactive instead of commenting on it."

Homare stopped in his tracks and looked at Jijimon with a raised eyebrow. "You know what Blikmon feels?"

Jijimon chuckled. "I've been living with it for ages, so why not?"

Homare's smile grew wider, although any of his troupe mates could easily see the pain in it. "You two are like my grandparents. My grandmother was always sullen around me, but then my grandfather would always tell me that she actually loved me."

"Oh? What a coincidence! Don't worry, you'll soon learn that Blikmon is just like your grandmother."

It was reassuring to have someone similar to your family member in this unfamiliar world, Homare thought, but a Digimon would always be a Digimon and never a human. "Thank you," he muttered.

Warm breeze blew against him as he stepped out of the house and walked towards the seaside. The rippling body of water glimmered under the sunlight, which would've inspired him if he were in the mood to compose.

Guy stood at the shore, with a fishing rod in his hands. Beside him a bucket, a metal box, and another fishing rod lay.

Homare had ever fished, but not properly. A while back, despite forgetting to set the bait on the hook, he somehow reeled in a red snapper. It was his luck speaking, he had to admit; without Kumon knocking the baits into the water by accident, Homare wouldn't have hooked any fish.

Time to learn, he thought as he approached Guy.

Then Homare learned that Guy was glaring at the water, spinning the reel and pulling the fishing rod. Homare decided to keep quiet and watch Guy instead of calling him; his troupe mate had to focus.

The fishing line snapped, and Guy reeled in nothing. Yet he remained poker-faced as he wiped the sweat off his temple with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Guy?" Homare asked.

"Oh, Arisugawa." Guy gave Homare a small smile. "Are you feeling better now?"

Homare nodded. "Blikmon was a kind soul. It gave me some food." He shifted his gaze to the sea. "The fish escaped… Do you not feel upset?"

"It's a natural part of fishing."

"Natural?"

"I used to think, why should I take pains catching fish from the water when I could simply buy them in the market? Yet I still enjoyed fishing even if I had that mindset," Guy replied. "Then I learned that the thrill in fishing was the struggle. It was more satisfying to eat the fish you caught with your own hands, especially after many failures."

"It is the thrill that matters, huh?" Homare looked down with a long face, dull pain radiating in his chest. "It seems like I fail to understand one's feelings again." And it hurt even more that Guy, who started off worse than him, now understood emotions better than he did.

Then Homare felt something warm on his shoulder. He looked back to see a smiling Guy, who had placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Emotions are complicated," Guy told him, "I know the feelings behind fishing because I fish, but I don't know the feelings behind poetry because I don't compose or recite poems."

"Hmm…" Homare stroked his chin. "Why do I find poetry fun?" A broad smile broke out on his face. "I know! I enjoy poetry because it allows me to express my feelings with my literary talents!"

"That is something only you and other poets can understand, correct?"

Homare nodded. "Indeed!" He wrapped his arms around Guy. "Thank you for your words. It amazes me how you learn faster than me when it comes to feelings."

"You think so? I always feel like I still have a lot to learn." Guy patted Homare's head. "But I'm glad that I could cheer you up." He looked at the fishing rod on the floor. "Would you like to fish with me, Arisugawa? I can teach you the basics."

Homare released Guy from his hug. "I'd love to." Then he noticed that Guy was staring past him, which prompted him to look at the water. Splashes echoed as fish jumped out of and back into the water.

The ground shook.


	9. Worry

When the ground trembled and the hanging lamps in the shop rattled, Azuma took cover under a desk, just like what he did in the real world. Yet Unimon tilted its head at the sight.

"It's just a small earthquake," the winged unicorn told Azuma. "This building has survived much bigger ones."

Once everything stopped shaking, Azuma crawled out of the desk and stood up. "It seems like a regular occurrence here?"

Unimon nodded. "Deep underneath File City lies Lava Cave. Any activities there will shake the city."

"That sounds dangerous. Has anyone thought of investigating it?"

"Years ago a Meramon was behind the activities. Then a horde of Goburimon and Drimogemon banded together to stop it," Unimon explained. "There hadn't been any earthquakes until the last few months. Jijimon suspected that another Meramon had surfaced from the lava."

Azuma raised an eyebrow. "If they've stopped a Meramon in the past, then why couldn't they do it again?"

"The Meramon might've evolved into its Perfect form, DeathMeramon. We'll have to wait until the old heroes evolve." Unimon looked down; the red mask covering the upper half of its face made it hard for Azuma to read the Digimon's mood. "If they're still alive anyway. Goburimon and Drimogemon aren't the most heat-resistant Digimon."

"Heat-resistant, huh?" Azuma's mind immediately went to Homare. "Do you think Agnimon can deal with it?"

"Agnimon?" Unimon rubbed its head with a hoof. "As far as I know, the Human Form of Spirit Evolution is weaker than a Perfect Digimon. It'll be a very tough battle for Agnimon unless it evolves into its Beast Form."

"Beast Form…" Azuma scowled, his heart beating faster as the air in the air-conditioned shop somehow became more chilling. Calming the beast with a talk was possible, right?

Even if someone could possibly control the Beast Form right off the bat, Azuma would prefer that nobody would ever need to evolve into that form. Imagining the risk sent chills down his spine.

The shop doorbell rang, drawing Azuma's attention to the automatic doors. They opened, and a little yellow dinosaur ran into the shop. It had a loaded plastic bag in its hands.

The air around Azuma warmed up again.

"Kentarumon's errand, Agumon?" Unimon asked.

Agumon approached the counter, placed the plastic bag on it, and fished a roll of bandage out of the bag. "Yeah, trading this for a jar of instant coffee as usual!"

"All right." Azuma picked up the bandage and headed to the desks behind the counter. The bandage would go to the medical supplies section.

The items in Digital World had no brand at all, which made Azuma wonder if Digital World were really small, or Digimon never cared about branding. If anything, they still used the barter system, unlike what Tasuku had said. Nevertheless, it made Azuma's work easy; he only needed to pick one of the jars on the desk for coffee.

"Oh, thanks, Azuma." With its teeth, Unimon picked up the jar from Azuma's hands and placed it on the counter. "How's the clinic doing recently, Agumon?"

"It's kinda quiet." Agumon pointed at Azuma. "From the human world?"

Azuma nodded. "Yes. Is something the matter?"

"Nothing! Just curious!" Agumon put the jar of instant coffee into the plastic bag. "See ya! If you get health issues or stuff, our clinic is always open!" Then it rushed out of the shop.

Agumon sounded like the puppies in the dorm, didn't it? Azuma laughed softly. "What an energetic kid."

"Indeed," Unimon replied. "How nice it is, to have someone to talk to when you have nothing to do." The winged unicorn beamed at Azuma. "Before you came, it was really lonely here."

"I understand the feeling. Clients come and go."

If Azuma hadn't met Winter Troupe, he'd have wavered towards the end. Clients were fleeting and ephemeral, just like life. Although everything would come to an end someday, Winter Troupe would never leave him alone all of a sudden, would they?

His thoughts went back to the risk of Beast Form, and he shuddered at the unnaturally chilling air.

"You okay?" Unimon asked.

The air warmed up again. "It's fine. Just had a bit of bad memories."

Unimon nodded, without saying a word. Part of Azuma wanted the winged unicorn to pry a bit more, so that he could vent comfortably, but another part of him appreciated the silence.

Honestly, he thought silence was better right now. He'd just met Unimon.

The shop doorbell rang again; this time, it was a very familiar sight. A frowning Tasuku approached the counter, with a sleeping Hisoka slung over his shoulder and a bulky black rucksack on his back. Detritus rested across Hisoka's jacket and jeans.

"He sleeps more than he works." Tasuku unzipped the side pocket of the backpack and took three shiny golden mushrooms out of it. "But I couldn't have found some Happy Mushrooms without his help." After putting them on the counter, Tasuku went to take two more from the side pocket. "Here, I'm selling them."

Azuma snickered. "Tasuku, the shop is using the barter system."

Tasuku's eyes widened. "What the-"

"Well, you can trade them for something here, but I'd recommend bringing them to the restaurant or the clinic," Unimon interrupted. "Only Digitamamon and Kentarumon know how to process these mushrooms into something useful."

"It wouldn't hurt to keep them for an emergency," Azuma added.

"I guess I'll keep them then." Tasuku returned the mushrooms to the side pocket and began walking away. "We'll be waiting at Jijimon's house."

Once Tasuku left the shop, Unimon began, "He's a kind-hearted guy, isn't he? I doubt I have the strength to deal with that kind of hunting partner."

Azuma chuckled. "That's our Tasuku for you. He may be rough around the edges, but-"

A loud ring echoed from behind Azuma, prompting him and Unimon to look back. The winged unicorn immediately gazed at the clock; it was twelve now.

"My shift's over, but seems like Piyomon is late. Oh, well..." Unimon strode to the fruits section of the merch tables. With its teeth, it picked up a bunch of orange bananas by the plastic rope around its stalk and brought the fruit to Azuma.

Once Azuma took the bananas, the winged unicorn said, "Thanks for the help. You can go back to Jijimon's house now if you want."

"You sure?"

Unimon nodded. "I'll be fine. After all, I've been working here for years."

"For years, huh?" Alone for years, just like Azuma himself. They really should talk a bit more later; up until now, neither had talked about their personal lives. Not that any of them bothered to ask; even when there was the opportunity, both of them simply let it slip.

It was just like Winter Troupe's situation back when it'd just formed.

Azuma walked out of the counter and towards the automatic doors. "All right." Before leaving the shop, he flashed a smile at Unimon, who nodded and smiled back at him.

Azuma had always preferred walking slowly when outside to enjoy the scenery, especially in an unfamiliar place, but the discomfort across his face told him not to. He didn't bring his skincare supplements to this world, while the shop didn't sell any.

Fortunately, Jijimon's house wasn't that far from the business district; it was comparable to the distance from the dorm to the shopping district of Veludo Way, Azuma would say. What a small town.

The breeze from the aircon inside Jijimon's house freshened his face. Blikmon and Monzaemon lay beside the TV in the living room, completely immobile. Tsumugi and Tasuku sat on a couch, while Homare sat on the one across them, with Hisoka sleeping on his lap.

As Azuma approached them, Tsumugi greeted him, "Welcome back."

"Oh, you got some Orange Bananas there." Tasuku smiled. "Please take a seat. We're just about to discuss our next move."

Azuma put the bananas on the table, right beside a map, and sat on the vacant couch. "Where's Guy?"

"He's in charge of cooking with Jijimon." Tsumugi laughed. "I still remember how he used to burn soup."

"Can't wait to see what he'll come up with," Tasuku said. "He and Arisugawa caught two Digi Snappers. Vegimon gave Tsumugi some meat for helping at the farm."

"We are having a feast!" Homare exclaimed.

"Food at Digital World is very filling, so we might end up with some leftovers." Tasuku cracked his knuckles. "Now, let's start the discussion. For starters, our phones won't have any signal in this world, so communication will be hard."

"Do we need them at all? I mean, we're always going everywhere together, aren't we?" Azuma asked.

"Not really, at least for the first two items. Some of us will have to stay here to gather food for dinner."

"Jijimon will need six items to conjure up a portal." Tsumugi pointed at a dot with the text "Drill Tunnel" on the map. "We'll get the Fireball first since it's the closest to File City."

"We'll have to travel through Drill Tunnel to reach Lava Cave, where the item is supposed to be."

"Lava Cave…" Azuma looked down with a long face. "I heard from Unimon that the activities there had been causing earthquakes. Meramon was the culprit years ago, but now it might be DeathMeramon."

"DeathMeramon you say?" Tasuku's eyes widened. "That means we'd better send four instead of three people there."

"You'll be staying here with me, Azuma," Tsumugi said. "Tasuku said it's the best for us."

"Staying here and waiting for everyone's return..." Azuma gulped as his limbs went cold. Winter Troupe, his newfound family, would always come back to him, but for some reason, Azuma couldn't shake the dread off his mind.

"They'll be fine," Tsumugi reassured. "They have Tasuku after all."

"I'm familiar with this world, even if it'll have some changes here and there," Tasuku added. "I can guide everyone throughout the journey."

Azuma looked at Tasuku, then Homare, who all smiled gently and confidently at him. They'd come back. They'd surely come back to him.

Tasuku cleared his throat. "From what I know, the heat will drive a Drimogemon mad there. We'll need Mikage's ice powers to cool it off."

"Next up is Lava Cave," Tsumugi continued. "It's got a river of lava, so only Homare can explore it safely. But then he might bump into either Meramon or DeathMeramon."

"We'll have Guy as a backup. According to Jijimon, he can possibly control his Beast Form right off the bat. Arisugawa is still the best for exploring Lava Cave, but if he ever needs help against DeathMeramon, Guy can do it."

"Bolgmon's mobility is very limited though, so Guy is pretty much our last resort."

"Homare…" Azuma gave Homare a worried look.

"Worry not, Azuma!" Homare grinned. "I shall return triumphantly with the Fireball!"

Heart hammering wildly against his chest, Azuma forced a smile. His limbs quivered a bit at the sudden drop in the room temperature.

Everything should be fine, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JP - Dub names
> 
> Perfect - Ultimate  
> DeathMeramon - SkullMeramon  
> Kentarumon - Centarumon  
> Piyomon - Biyomon  
> Bolgmon - MetalKabuterimon


	10. Drill Tunnel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a small spoilerish reference to Hisoka's back story.

Since the four of them began their journey to Drill Tunnel, Hisoka hadn't fallen asleep even once; hell, he had ruthlessly frozen the ModokiBetamon that stood in their way. On one side it delighted Tasuku, but on the other side it felt really off.

Maybe Hisoka only wanted to get the job done quickly, so that Azuma didn't have to worry too much. Guy and Homare also thought of the same thing.

It had been a tough decision to make, Tasuku had to admit. It was as if he were forcing Azuma to relive his past, in which he waited for his family to return, only to later learn that they were all dead. But what could Tasuku do? Azuma was never a man of action, and his element wouldn't do any good here.

"We'll come back," Tasuku had told Azuma, but it had failed to make him smile a genuine smile.

Golden rays of light pierced through the rustling leaves, but the further they went, the harsher the sunlight grew. It had to be the diminishing amount of surrounding trees, Tasuku would say. Now he remembered another problem Azuma had: the lack of skincare products in Digital World.

They wound up at a mountain trail, which led them to a cliffside. The wind was stronger and fresher, perfect for easing Tasuku's burden as the team's pack mule.

If only Homare would stop there to enjoy the scenery of the vast lake that rested below the cliff…

"Oi, this backpack is heavy!" Tasuku yelled. "And think of Azuma too," he wanted to add, but the words remained in his heart.

"The squawking gulls… The glimmering water... The rolling, rumbling waves…" Homare stroked his chin, then pointed upwards with an index finger. "Oho, I feel a wave of-"

"Arisugawa, look out!"

If the usually calm Guy shouted, there had to be something really bad happening. Tasuku looked at the lake, and his eyes widened. Schools of fish jumped out of and back into the water, as if sensing something unnatural in nature.

The ground trembled. Hard. Thuds and crashes echoed as cracks forked across the mossy, craggy wall beside them.

The land beneath Homare crumbled.

"Arisu!" Hisoka dashed to catch Homare's hand and with Guy's help, pulled the man back up and brought him to the stable ground.

Wiping the sweat off his temple with the sleeve of his jacket, Homare let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you!"

"Be careful, Arisugawa," Guy told him.

Once again, Tasuku noticed something really off with Hisoka. Fists clenched, the little guy glowered at Homare.

And his knuckles slammed into Homare's cheek. Guy wrapped his arms around Hisoka, to restrain the little guy from launching more punches.

The wincing Homare clasped his reddening cheek. "Hisoka?"

"Arisu, you idiot!" Hisoka thrashed and struggled against Guy's hold. "Let me go, Guy!"

"I cannot."

Hisoka calmed down. After a moment of silence, he mumbled, "I'm not hitting him. I promise."

Guy relented, and Hisoka went to seize Homare by his collar.

"Hisoka?" Homare asked again.

Pulling Homare down to the point that their foreheads touched, Hisoka snarled. "Don't do anything stupid when exploring Lava Cave, get it? I won't forgive you if you… If you..." His voice wavered.

Homare smiled and ran a finger through Hisoka's fluffy white hair. "I know, Hisoka. I will live on and keep taking care of you on _his_ behalf."

Hisoka shoved Homare away. "You better!"

Guy remained poker-faced, but when Tasuku took a closer look, he learned that Guy seemed stuck.

No wonder. Even Tasuku, who understood emotion better than Guy did, didn't know how to comfort everyone. Damn, he should've brought Tsumugi here; their troupe leader should know what to do right now.

But leaving things be felt so wrong. Tasuku had decided to leave Tsumugi at File City for his safety; Tasuku had better take responsibility for that.

"Arisugawa," he began, "you have to know that you're precious to us, even if you often think that you aren't, even if we sometimes act like you aren't." Man, that sounded cheesy.

Homare's eyes widened. Then he grinned. "It is unusual to hear such encouraging words from you, Tasuku."

"I'm bad at this kind of thing." Tasuku turned away and waved a hand. "Come on. Don't make Azuma wait any longer." By the time he realized what had just slipped out of his mouth, it was too late.

"You're pretty good at this kind of thing, Takato," Guy commented.

Tasuku sighed. "Whatever."

Something glowed in the distance, prompting Tasuku to speed up. As expected, it came from the green neon sign above the entrance of a tunnel - Drill Tunnel, their destination.

When everyone caught up with him, Tasuku told Hisoka, "Listen, Mikage. Your job is to cool off the mad Digimon in the tunnel, if you see any."

Hisoka nodded. "Okay."

The whirring of engines filled the tunnel. Things smelled earthy, and a bit smoky. Tasuku wondered if the acrid odor would get worse down there; Drill Tunnel didn't have the best ventilation system, as far as he knew.

Approaching a junction at the end of the straightforward path, Tasuku raised an eyebrow. He remembered bumping into a Goburimon here in the game.

Maybe it was just another of the many changes in this version of Digital World.

Hisoka suddenly dashed past him. Like a pro spy, he leaned against the rough wall and stared at the descending staircase ahead.

"Mikage?" Tasuku asked.

"I hear something." Hisoka crept towards the staircase.

Heavy footfalls echoed, and Hisoka slammed his palms against the ground. A wall of ice burst out of the earthen floor.

Crash!

A smoldering drill head poked out of the wall, melting the ice with a pshhh. Then the drill head moved and sliced open the wall like a hot knife through butter. Only chunks of ice and a puddle of water remained.

A big purple mole stood before Hisoka, its hands on the large drill attached to its snout. "Phew, what a relief," it said. "Thanks for the ice!"

Tasuku stepped past Hisoka. "Drimogemon?"

The Digimon scratched its head. "Have we ever met? You don't look like a Digimon."

"Uh, we're from the human world. We heard about you and this tunnel from Jijimon," Tasuku replied. Drimogemon didn't need to know about his knowledge of Digimon franchise.

"Oh, you're from File City. Did Jijimon send you here to investigate Lava Cave?"

"We're searching for the Fireball there. Do you know anything about it?"

"I think it'll be nicer to talk in my room." Drimogemon descended the staircase and motioned them towards it. "Follow me."

Everyone followed Drimogemon to the B1 floor of the tunnel. Three green humanoid Digimon sat on the floor, leaning against the wall and gasping for breath.

Tasuku understood the feeling; the hot, humid air made him and Guy sweat a lot. The stench of burning oil also grew stronger the further they went. Thankfully Azuma wasn't here.

Hisoka and Homare remained unaffected, but whereas Hisoka wrinkled his nose, Homare kept walking as if the environmental changes didn't exist.

Drimogemon led them to a room with a bunk bed, a dining table, and a kitchen. The ceiling fan spun weakly, which cooled the air but only a bit. The room still reeked of burning oil.

And again, Hisoka didn't act like himself; normally, he'd shamelessly rush to the bed and sleep. Maybe it had something to do with the noise or the odor, or maybe...

"Mikage," Tasuku began, "are you worried about something?" Ugh, he really wasn't used to this.

Hisoka said nothing.

"Sorry," Tasuku muttered.

"Oh, you're uncomfortable with this place?" Drimogemon asked. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Guy said. "We're not used to this kind of environment."

Drimogemon pointed at Homare. "You don't look troubled by it."

"Of course not!" Homare flicked his fingers and conjured a small spark. "I wield the power of flames after all!"

"Then you can find the Fireball in Lava Cave!" Drimogemon scratched its cheek with a finger. "Legends say that deep within the cave lies the Fireball, guarded by Meramon." The Digimon shrugged. "Our ancestors never found it despite having defeated Meramon and stopped the earthquakes."

"So we'll end up fighting Meramon no matter what," Tasuku commented.

Drimogemon shook its head. "It's DeathMeramon now. The exploration team was lucky enough to flee from it and told us about its existence."

"Drimogemon," Hisoka began, "How strong is DeathMeramon?"

"Its fire can melt metal easily. You get the idea."

Hisoka looked down, his eye teary. So, _that_ was what he was worried about. Hisoka had a very good reason to; Tasuku still remembered DeathMeramon's debut in _Digimon Adventure_ : its mere presence radiated enough heat to bend Tokyo Tower.

Tasuku closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath before exhaling. When was the last time he said something nice to Homare? Before entering Drill Tunnel, yeah, but before that? Tasuku couldn't remember.

Even if he didn't like it, even if he sucked at it, he had to speak up now. Homare needed a lot of support and encouragement before going; unlike acting, he'd die for real if he made a wrong move.

"Arisugawa, I know evolving into Beast Form has its danger, but you might want to do it. DeathMeramon is too strong for Agnimon alone." Smiling the best he could, Tasuku placed his hands on Homare's shoulders. "If you ever evolve and run wild, please don't be afraid to approach us. You might hurt us, but we'll still love you. We'll find a way to save you."

Homare raised an eyebrow. "Tasuku? What makes you unusually nice to me recently?"

Smile disappearing, Tasuku shook Homare and snapped, "Do you really have to ask about it?"

Homare chuckled. "Ah, that's more like the usual you. So, how can I evolve into Beast Form?"

Tasuku released Homare. "You will yourself to evolve as you launch yourself forward and scream, 'Slide Evolution!' You can return to your Human Form the same way."

"Understood."

"Anything else you wanna ask?" Drimogemon asked Homare. "If not, you can start moving. After leaving this room, just go straight ahead until you reach the underground pond. Then follow the path. It's pretty straightforward."

"I have no more questions." Before walking out of the room, Homare scratched his head. "Are you all right, everyone? You all look so worried, as if I am not going to return."

Something within Tasuku snapped, and he burst into tears and bolted towards Homare with clenched fists. "Shut the hell up!"

Guy held Tasuku back. "Takato, you must not hurt Arisugawa. He is about to fight a powerful opponent."

"Arisu, you must come back!" Hisoka yelled, tears trickling down his cheeks.

Homare laughed. "Of course I will."

And with that, he set off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My muse is on fire recently, so better take advantage of it. Also, it's been a while since I write a big battle scene, so it's just that fun to unleash it. Not in this chapter, but very soon.


	11. Wildfire

Once Homare evolved to Agnimon, he felt like standing at the cliffside and enjoying the mountain breeze, even if Drill Tunnel only had a few wall and ceiling fans. It also never got hotter when he reached the underground pond, which, if he interpreted Drimogemon's direction correctly, shouldn't be too far from Lava Cave.

The heat of Lava Cave shouldn't bother him. DeathMeramon's metal-melting flames shouldn't hurt.

His troupe mates needed not worry about him.

A goblin Digimon stood before the pond, gazing wistfully at the boiling body of water. Then it kicked a pebble into the pond. "Dammit, DeathMeramon!"

Homare approached the Digimon. "I hear you."

The goblin Digimon turned. "Huh? Never seen an Agnimon around here."

Homare bowed. "I apologize for my impudence. My name is Homare Arisugawa, an inhabitant of the human world."

"Human world?" The Digimon scratched its head. "You don't look like a human."

"I evolved into a Digimon to explore Lava Cave."

"You're gonna fight DeathMeramon then?"

"Yes."

Grinning, the Digimon clenched its fists and shook them. "Awesome!" Then it ran past Homare. "Be sure to kick DeathMeramon's ass, yeah? Everyone in Drill Tunnel will be very happy!"

Homare nodded with a broad smile. "Certainly." Oh, how much he wished that his troupe mates were as positive as this green-skinned midget. He appreciated their concern, though.

Although the path to Lava Cave had many twists and turns, it had no forks. It was truly just a straightforward road surrounded by craggy walls, with stalactites and stalagmites here and there.

The further he went, the clearer the rumbling, bubbling sounds grew. Stench of rotten eggs, or should Homare say, sulphur, wafted in the air. Surprisingly, the odor wasn't as strong as what he'd expected from a cavern with a river of lava.

Inside Lava Cave, Homare only felt like walking in an open area, under the blazing sun. However, the fumes and incandescence from the lava painted his smoky vision red; one wrong move, he'd fall off the narrow path and into the stream of molten rock.

Lava probably wouldn't hurt him, but he wouldn't take a risk.

The path widened, and Homare spotted something blue amid the hazy redness. Whatever it was, Homare tiptoed towards a massive stalagmite and ducked behind it.

A muscular humanoid Digimon stood in the distance, cloaked in blue fire and clad in a metal mask. Chains wrapped its torching body.

It roared, and the ground trembled, causing a downpour of dust and debris. Then the tremor and the rain stopped.

This had to be the DeathMeramon everyone was talking about. Homare clenched his fists and nodded. Even if everyone only aimed to get the Fireball and run, he'd stay to vanquish this monstrosity. DeathMeramon probably had its own reason to ravage the world, but his deeds would harm the peaceful inhabitants of File City and his dear troupe mates sooner or later. They deserved none of this!

"Stop this madness!" Homare leaped out of his hideout. Fire gathered around his fists.

His blazing knuckles slammed into DeathMeramon's, sending a sweeping shock wave of red and blue flames across the cavern. Rocks rained down upon them.

The fire around Homare's fist died as searing, throbbing pain overwhelmed his arm. But just like performing action scenes, stopping would only cause a mess; your opponent would keep moving.

With only an arm to block DeathMeramon's barrage of fiery punches, Homare took multiple blows to his body. Air and golden particles rushed out of his mouth as he crashed into the craggy wall. Burning pain radiated across his torso. The fire around his other fist faded.

DeathMeramon walked towards him, slowly as if it already knew who'd win the battle. It didn't even launch any sort of long-ranged attacks.

Fine. Homare would wipe the smirk off the Digimon's face, if it were indeed smiling behind that metal mask.

The pain subsided, and Homare rose to his feet. Flames streamed down his arms, and he slammed his torching fists against each other.

When DeathMeramon dashed, Homare punched and launched a flaming serpentine dragon at the Digimon. DeathMeramon rushed through it and threw a fist. Damnation!

Homare crossed his arms and blocked the fiery punch in the nick of time. Everything burned and hurt, and his defense broke down. DeathMeramon's knuckles smashed into his masked face and knocked him down. Metallic shards punctured into his face as golden particles gushed out of his nostrils and wounds.

As Homare clasped his face and groaned and writhed in pain, DeathMeramon said, "I'm always impressed at those who challenge me with the power of fire." It reached out a hand. "How about this? Be my ally. Let's destroy this broken world together."

Homare's eyes widened, his hands slipping away from his face. Did it just say _"destroy the broken world?"_ He could swear that his heart beat even faster and harder after hearing that.

"This world is going to die anyway," DeathMeramon added. "No point in keeping it alive."

Homare sat up, his gaze fixed at the earthen floor, his hands balling into fists. This scumbag… The audacity…

DeathMeramon's words were a potent painkiller.

Rising to his feet, Homare smacked away the hand. "What a disgusting, twisted philosophy!" His body went aflame, and he lunged.

A fiery blast came with every punch that landed, slowly pushing the defending DeathMeramon to the edge of the terrain. This bastard was going down; Homare was sure of it!

DeathMeramon slipped. The blue flame across its body stopped roaring as it clung to the jagged edge of the land.

Gritting his teeth, Homare brought a foot down upon the Digimon's hand. One hand down. One more left.

As Homare went to stomp the other hand, DeathMeramon opened its mouth. A splatter of molten metal flew out of it and struck Homare in the eye. Homare jerked back, screaming as his fire died out and his hands went to grasp the hurting site. It fizzled.

A chuckle echoed amid his shriek and the rumbling and bubbling of lava. Then something sizzled beneath him. Searing pain shot up from his leg, forcing an even louder scream out of him.

"You know, we could've made a great team," DeathMeramon said. "But you don't seem to agree with my philosophy, so…"

Half of Homare's visual field had gone black, while the other half blurred and spun. He shouldn't have let his temper overtake him when DeathMeramon talked about its plan. He should've pretended to accept it before striking. He might've won. He might've gotten the chance to shout, _"Even if this world will eventually die, destruction is never the way! The world will never be perfect, but that's why it's beautiful!"_

He might even turn DeathMeramon into an ally.

"Farewell," DeathMeramon muttered. Then it threw Homare into the river of lava.

Drowning in the stream of molten rock, Homare thrashed at the pain. His throat, his lungs, his whole body burned, in and out.

 _"Evolve,"_ his primal instinct told him, _"Evolve now!"_

Evolving into his Beast Form would perhaps save him, but he recalled its danger. Tasuku had said that they'd forgive him if he lost control and hurt everyone in that form, but what if he ended up slaughtering them?

Homare thought of an idea and nodded. He'd evolve. He'd stop DeathMeramon and its insane plan. If he ever ran wild, he'd just seal himself in Lava Cave until he found a way to control himself.

With a flick of his foot, Homare bolted ahead and let the words "Slide Evolution" rip out of his singed throat. Things no longer hurt and burned.

A pair of flaming wings sprouted out of his back as a tail grew out of his backside. His fingers and toes transformed into claws, and a gun appeared on each of his forearms. His head became that of a dragon's.

In a flash, his body moved by itself and rocketed out of the lava. An animalistic roar burst out of its mouth.

He remained still in the air, his wings flapping rapidly.

"What the hell!" DeathMeramon's jaw dropped as it stepped back, trembling in fear.

"I won't let you destroy this world!" Homare wanted to yell, but a roar came out instead. His body wouldn't respond to his command; he should've known it.

His arms moved to point the guns at the scurrying DeathMeramon. The muzzles glowed, and a myriad of blazing projectiles hailed down upon the hapless Digimon. The terrain melted and smoldered. Golden particles escaped from the holes across the Digimon's body as it collapsed.

"Spare me, Vritramon!" DeathMeramon begged. "Please, I'll be your ally! Your disciple! Anything!"

It sounded genuine, Homare thought. He wouldn't mind having such a powerful ally around; if he had to be honest, this was exactly what he was hoping for.

But whatever he did, his guns wouldn't stop firing. He tried to redirect his arms, but to no avail. The last thing he could do as the projectiles reduced DeathMeramon into radiant dust was saying, _"Please forgive me, DeathMeramon."_

His words became a roar anyway. His body didn't even let him shed tears. He really wished that he could befriend DeathMeramon and tell it that its philosophy was wrong; some people might still find the beauty in broken things. Perhaps it'd learn to appreciate the beauty of imperfection.

But DeathMeramon was gone, and Homare couldn't even stop his rampage.

Fortunately, his body refused to budge from the cavern. It was the only thing that delighted him as he remained in the red-hot hell, all alone.

 _"Someday I shall return, my dear troupe mates. Please have faith and wait for me."_ But instead of words, a whine came out of his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JP - Dub Names
> 
> Vritramon - BurningGreymon
> 
> The real boss in Lava Cave in the game is a Meramon, which can be pretty tough if you aren't prepared. Its pre-battle lines are part of why I choose to let it be Homare's opponent, although evolved.


	12. Rescue Mission

The air in Drimogemon's room had cooled down a bit; it now felt like staying under the shade of large trees when the sun was at its peak.

Goburimon ran into the room. "Drimogemon, the underground pond isn't boiling anymore!"

"This means DeathMeramon is gone for good!" Drimogemon clapped its hands. "Great!"

Tasuku let out a sigh of relief and smiled broadly. "I can't believe it! Arisugawa did it!"

Guy also smiled, but only a bit; he still hadn't gotten used to feeling sheer happiness and making big smiles. "We only need to wait for his return."

However, Hisoka remained quiet and somber. Noticing this, Guy approached him with a raised eyebrow. "Mikage, are you not happy about this?"

Hisoka didn't answer. He didn't even look at Guy.

"Arisugawa won, didn't he?" Guy asked.

After a moment of silence, Hisoka muttered, "Guy, Arisu came from a high social class and never fought, unlike us. If he bleeds a lot, he'll be terrified."

"Well, this is Digital World," Tasuku said. "Those shiny golden particles are the closest to blood. Your body will reabsorb them if they're still around you, so you don't have to worry about them clogging up your throat or something."

"But still… If he gets badly hurt..."

Hisoka had ever looked sad, but rarely this sad. Guy only saw Hisoka on the verge of tears like this whenever he talked about August, his fallen comrade. From what Guy had gathered, August would always go along with Hisoka's selfish demands.

To Hisoka, losing Homare would certainly feel like losing August again.

Smiling, Guy patted Hisoka's back. "I understand, Mikage. I will go to Lava Cave."

Hisoka's eye widened. "You will?"

"Oh, right. I didn't suggest bringing Guy along for no good reason," Tasuku said. "Guy, do you know your pose? Yours is very simple."

"It's like this?" Guy reached out a hand, as if holding a D-Scanner gadget and showing it to everybody. Then he swiped his hand against the non-existent D-Scanner. "Spirit Evolution!"

Guy's body glowed, and everything went numb. Electric currents crackled across his growing, transforming body. Images of a big, heavily-armored beetle man launching fists full of lightning flashed across his mind.

When he regained his senses, he found out that he was now the beetle man in the flashes, with a massive horn jutting out of his forehead. The light and electricity around him faded.

"Blitzmon!" Guy shouted as he slammed his fists against each other. Then he looked at his armored hands. "I evolved."

"With DeathMeramon gone and the air cooled off a bit, that form should be enough," Tasuku said. "You just need extra heat resistance."

Guy nodded. "Then I'm going."

Hisoka wrapped his arms around Guy's armored leg and gave him a pleading look. "Please bring Arisu back."

"I will. Leave it to me."

Hisoka released Guy and smiled tearfully. "Thanks."

"We're counting on you," Tasuku said.

Guy nodded and ran, leaving dents on the ground with every step he took. What a heavy armor, he thought, but it didn't feel heavier the Medieval armor Homare once told him to wear at his mansion.

The Goburimon along the way stared at the damaged floor and shouted at Guy, which prompted him to jump and open his forewings. The rapid flapping of his hindwings sent him buzzing past the underground pond area.

Mild burning pain crept around Guy's body the further he went, and his ears registered distant rumbling and bubbling noises. Judging from the increasingly intense odor of sulphur, he was sure that he'd reach Lava Cave soon.

His vision blurred and reddened, and he soon emerged in a cavern, before a river of lava. The searing pain worsened, the stench pushed acid up his throat, but he kept going. Everyone needed him.

Spotting the silhouette of a winged figure in the distance, Guy carefully dropped to the ground and walked slowly ahead. His heart pounded; DeathMeramon was gone, wasn't it? Or…

The silhouette jumped into the air and flapped its wings. Guy stopped in his tracks.

Something slammed into Guy. Burning pain exploded across his body as the impact sent him rocketing a few feet back. He winced.

The stream of molten rock drew closer to him. Regaining his composure, he flapped his hindwings and propelled himself back to the land. His eyes widened at the sight.

A dragon man clad in a crimson armor stood there, its eye glowing red, its face marred by cuts, its leg a mess of molten metal and charred flesh. Golden particles escaped from the wounds and its other eye.

Guy recognized that crimson armor, and realization dawned on him.

"Arisugawa!" he called out. "Let's leave-"

A bestial roar cut him short, and the dragon man - Homare - pointed the guns on his forearms at him. Just as the muzzles glowed, Guy leaped and glided over Homare's head. The barrage of fiery projectiles ripped through the empty air.

How could he bring Homare back to his senses? Talking? How could Guy succeed, when he didn't really understand what his comrade felt?

Did he really have to force Homare to revert? Guy rarely felt dread, but the idea of Homare reverting with a missing eye and a mangled face and leg made him shudder. Fortunately blood didn't exist in Digital World.

Homare turned, unleashing a gush of fire with a swing of his tail. Guy jumped out of harm's way, but the tremendous heat clawed at his feet. He screamed as he crashed into the ground.

Homare roared again and launched himself into the air. As his body went aflame, Guy got up and balled his hands into fists. They shook, and would've turned white if Guy were a human instead of a Digimon.

He wished he could calm Homare down safely, but what did he have in his arsenal? Combat skills, not people skills. And he hated himself for it.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. Time to evolve.

When Homare swooped in, Guy lunged and shouted, "Slide Evolution!" His horn became a gigantic cannon. His arms transformed into three-barreled guns, and another pair of small arms grew out of his sides. His legs turned into tank tracks.

His body rammed into Homare and drove the dragon man into the wall. Cracks forked across Homare's armor as golden particles sprayed out of his mouth.

Guy's gun arm moved by itself to punch Homare, and the blow shattered the dragon man's chestplate. Guy's eyes widened, but then he closed them.

Breathe in, breathe out. In and out. Everything should be fine.

Guy opened his eyes. His limbs no longer moved by themselves, much to his delight. Now he only needed to tell Homare this trick of his.

The red glow in Homare's eye vanished, and he shouted, "Guy, stay away!"

Guy smiled, behind the helmet that concealed his face. "Breathe, Arisugawa! Breathe-"

Homare's eye glowed red again, and he roared. A fiery explosion blasted Guy away, sending a surge of burning pain across his whole body.

Guy landed on his back, but immediately pushed himself back up. Homare had stood up as well, albeit a little stooped.

The red glow in his eye flickered. "Guy… Run..."

"Don't panic! Take a deep breath!"

"I… Cannot… Control…" Homare roared again, launching myriads of fireballs from his body. They merely grazed Guy's armor.

With the glow fading, Homare staggered backwards. "Please…" His eye glowed again, and he charged at Guy. A swing of Guy's gun arm swatted him away to the wall.

Homare slowly rose to his feet. "Leave… Me… Alone..."

It seemed like Guy had no other choice.

Tears welling in his eyes, he took aim with his horn cannon. "Please forgive me, Arisugawa." In his heart, he prayed that Homare was still strong enough to survive this.

Yellow light radiated around the muzzle, and a stream of electrical energy burst out of the cannon. The recoil pushed Guy back.

An agonized roar echoed, causing the ground to tremble and rocks and debris to rain down upon them. Shock waves and bolts of lightning rippled in all directions as Homare smashed through the wall.

And it became chillingly silent. Guy's ears only registered the rumbling and bubbling of the lava stream.

"Arisugawa?" Guy moved ahead, into a deep, dark tunnel, and gasped upon finding Homare's sprawled body amid the rubble. He'd finally reverted, although golden particles were leaving his wounds at an alarming rate. His body was also flickering in and out of existence.

"Arisugawa!" Guy lunged, slide-evolved back to Blitzmon, and knelt beside Homare. "Hang in there!" He leaned forward to hear the man's breathing and placed his fingers on the man's neck to find a pulse.

There was nothing.

Guy remained still, staring vacantly at Homare's body. Winter Troupe would lose their beloved moodmaker, Azuma would recall the tragic end of his family and break down, and Hisoka… Poor, poor Hisoka...

A wave of emotion crashed down upon him.

Tears streamed down Guy's cheeks as he dragged Homare's body deeper into the tunnel. He recalled his training back at Zafra; his superiors had always sent him to various trauma life support courses, just in case something came up in the royal palace. CPR was one of them.

Hopefully, the cause of the cardiac arrest was the electric shock; from what Guy knew, the CPR in these cases had a higher chance of success. Not that CPR had a good chance of success anyway, but Guy wanted to believe that it did.

Putting down Homare's body and getting down on his knees, Guy reverted to a human. Sweat dribbled down his body as he gasped for breath almost collapsed, but his resolve to save his troupe mate kept him up.

With Homare's shirt torn and the man being rather thin, Guy found the sternum and the compression site easily. After interlocking his fingers, he placed his hands on Homare's chest and pressed down. The first compression brought a sickening crunch into Guy's ears, but he kept going, his teeth gritted, his face hardened with determination. Broken ribs were nothing compared to the life saved.

Thirty compressions later, Guy placed one hand on Homare's forehead and another on his jaw, to tilt his head and lift his chin. Squeezing Homare's nose, Guy then pressed his mouth against Homare's to give the man two breaths; for each rescue breath Guy caught a mouthful of foul-tasting golden particles and spat them out. Then he interlocked his fingers and pressed his hands against Homare's chest again.

After repeating the process four more times, Guy leaned forward and placed his fingers on Homare's neck again.

The breathing and the pulse had returned, although barely audible and palpable, much to Guy's relief. Homare's body still flickered, and golden particles were still flying away from it, but more slowly now. Guy almost succumbed to the exhaustion, only to remember that he still had to get Homare out of here and become fully alert again.

Guy placed one of Homare's arms at the side and brought another across his chest, with the hand against the cheek. After folding one of Homare's legs, Guy rolled the body towards him.

"Just a little more, Arisugawa." Smiling gently and tearfully at the unconscious Homare, Guy stood up. "Once we're out of here, you'll get a proper treatment. You'll live, I promise."

After evolving into Blitzmon, Guy carried Homare's body and buzzed out of the tunnel and Lava Cave. For some reason, the heat and the stench of lava didn't bother him even a bit. Perhaps it was adrenaline. Or perhaps he was so focused on bringing Homare to safety that he forgot about everything.

However, he was sure that he'd pass out once he reverted. Not that he cared.

He came to a stop at the underground pond area, where Hisoka and Tasuku stood. They immediately rushed to him, with Hisoka screaming, "Arisu!" Then Hisoka sobbed into Homare's body.

A pang of guilt shot up from Guy's chest as he gave Hisoka a wistful gaze, wishing that he could save Homare without gravely injuring him. He felt like telling Hisoka about the CPR story now, to ease his guilt, but how would the little man react to that story? People who had received a successful CPR usually sustained permanent brain damage.

"What happened to him?" Tasuku asked. "He's dying!"

"We must give him first aid and rush him to the clinic." Guy turned and flew away from Tasuku and Hisoka, who ran after him. "I found him in his Beast Form and out of control. I too, transformed into my Beast Form, but I immediately learned how to control it. I told him what I did, but..." Guy's voice wavered. "It didn't work."

There was a moment of silence before Tasuku replied, "I understand. You didn't have a choice."

Hisoka said nothing. When Guy glanced over his shoulder, he found the little man looking down at the ground, anger and sorrow written on all over his face.

Guy and Hisoka had to talk, once Homare had received the proper care he needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm used to "Zahra," but EN says "Zafra," so I'm using the latter since I've been trying to stick to EN style (no honorifics and stuff).
> 
> Also, in reality CPR is much more complicated; it has a very, very low chance of success. Mouth-to-mouth breathing isn't really recommended, for many reasons.


	13. The Journey Home

Drimogemon's room no longer felt hot and humid, but Hisoka still sweated quite a lot. Maybe the air was indeed burning, and his anxiety merely intensified the heat.

With Homare's leg, or rather, a leg made of a cluster of golden particles in his hands, Tasuku commented, "Mikage, you're really good at this."

Hisoka continued to silently wrap the bandage around Homare's leg. Of course he was good at this; the Organization had hammered the knowledge of combat trauma life support into his brain after all. Moreover, he used to treat August's and even Chikage's wounds. Whereas Chikage would complain and nag a lot, August would grumble at the pain and kindly ask him to work faster...

No. Hisoka shouldn't spare even a second for reminiscing. Homare would join August in the afterlife if he did.

After taping the bandage, Hisoka helped Tasuku put down Homare's leg as gently as possible, as if it were the most fragile thing in the world.

"This should do," Tasuku said.

Hisoka looked at the comatose Homare from head to toe and winced at the bandaged head, his heart hurting as if someone drove a knife into it. To have one of your eyes covered because it was wounded… Damn. Hisoka knew that feeling all too well.

It was the very reason why his right eye was in a lighter shade of green, almost yellow even. But unlike Hisoka, Homare had never entered the battlefield; how would the man react when he finally woke up?

To make things worse, Homare’s breathing looked off; the left side of his chest fell when he inhaled and rose when he exhaled. When he finally woke up, he had to endure the pain of breathing with broken ribs as well.

_If_ he did wake up.

"I wish this Digital World had recovery items like in the game," Tasuku muttered. "Medicine is only for treating wounds and illness."

Hisoka knelt beside the bed and held Homare's hand, which barely had any warmth. "Arisu…" Hisoka sobbed into it. "Please don't go. I don't wanna lose someone precious to me again."

Of course Homare wouldn't answer, but it took a load off Hisoka's shoulders.

"Mikage."

Hisoka looked at where the voice came from. A teary Tasuku stood beside him, a hand on his shoulder.

"I understand how you feel." Just as tears began running down his cheeks, Tasuku looked away. "We aren't the nicest people to him, are we?"

Did Tasuku really have to say that? Did he really have to twist the imaginary knife in Hisoka's heart? But Hisoka didn't even feel like yelling at Tasuku, who appeared to rub his face with his sleeves again and again.

"We- no, _I_ don't deserve him," Hisoka finally spoke. "Tasuku, you repair Arisu's pocket watch whenever it breaks, carry him home whenever he gets too drunk in a bar, and much more. I don't remember doing anything good to him."

Tasuku returned his gaze to Hisoka, whose eyes widened at the sight. This was the first time Hisoka saw Tasuku cry that much, to the point that tears kept flowing out of his eyes and nostrils and he had to keep wiping them off.

"You did," Tasuku told Hisoka, his voice shaky. "You… You helped him so much during our second troupe play and asked me to repair his watch." He paused. "And just now, you treated his wounds so quickly and neatly."

"Those are nothing compared to what Arisu has done to me." Hisoka stroked Homare's hand, the hand that had always put marshmallows in his mouth, the hand that had written countless poems for him. "I never thanked him for anything. I just complained and asked for more whenever possible."

"How about we...do something nice to him once he's up?"

Hisoka smiled a bit. "Let's do it."

"I wonder what will make him happy." Tasuku stroked his chin. "Maybe we can bring some Super Carrots to the restaurant and ask Digitamamon to cook various carrot dishes?"

"Super Carrots?"

"Special carrots from Vegimon's farm."

"That sounds good-" A tall, familiar figure descending the ladder of the bunk bed cut Hisoka off.

Guy had woken up and was now approaching them, with disheveled hair and a pair of half-closed eyes.

For a moment, there was nothing but the droning of engines in the room.

Tasuku looked at Guy and finally broke the awkward silence. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm only a bit tired. I do not sustain any serious injury however."

Tasuku smiled. "Your evolution line lacks mobility compared to others, but has a very thick armor to make up for it."

Hisoka's and Guy's gaze met, and Guy looked sideways, his poker face crumpling into a sorrowful one. Of course this would happen; he'd badly injured Homare after all. However, Hisoka still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Guy was their troupe mate and also too kind to ever do something this horrible to Homare.

They really had to talk, but how should they start? Hisoka had always been direct, which would only make him sound accusatory. Guy didn't look like he could even start a conversation. Tasuku, knowing how much he sucked at this kind of thing, probably wouldn't dare to step in.

The awkwardness lingered until Guy asked Tasuku, "How can we bring Arisugawa to the clinic? It's quite far from here. Carrying him all the way back will aggravate his wounds."

"Drimogemon will lend us the tunnel's minecart," Tasuku answered. "I first thought I'd just send Mikage to rush Arisugawa to the clinic, but now that you're up, it's better for you to go together."

And the awkward silence befell them again. Tasuku could only give them a pained look, a look that came from how much he wanted to help them reconcile but couldn't.

A moment later, he took a deep breath and said, "I know I'm just a pot calling the kettle black here, but you two need to talk."

Yeah, Hisoka remembered what happened when Winter Troupe had just formed. Tsumugi and Tasuku had something going on between them, yet neither would, or should Hisoka say, _could_ talk about their problems. Tsumugi was hesitant to approach the grumpy Tasuku, while Tasuku had mixed feelings about Tsumugi.

When nobody spoke up, Tasuku sighed. "Wish Tsumugi is here."

The awkward silence resumed. Then amid the rumbling of engines, metal scraped against the rough earthen floor. Drimogemon pushed a minecart into the room and stopped beside the bed. "Sorry. Took us some time to clean it up and get the mattress."

"It's all right. Thank you." Tasuku slipped one arm beneath Homare's shoulder and the other arm beneath Homare's waist. "Let's move him."

Hisoka nodded and together with Guy, lifted Homare by his legs. Homare felt unusually light, and upon seeing Tasuku's widened eyes, Hisoka could feel his heart drop.

After hauling the body into the cart, Tasuku pushed the cart out of the room. "He doesn't have much time left!"

Hisoka, Guy, and Drimogemon followed Tasuku and stopped before the staircase to the tunnel exit. It had small steps, but Hisoka doubted they could push the cart up without damaging the wheels.

Fists clenched, teeth gritted, Tasuku stomped the ground. "Dammit!"

"It's okay, human. Let's carry the cart."

These idiots could've made a lane for carts and whatnot, Hisoka thought. But at least Drimogemon had offered to carry it with them.

For some reason, the cart felt really light. It was only him, Hisoka could tell, as everyone else panted as soon as they arrived at the tunnel exit and put down the cart.

Maybe August's spirit was lending him a hand. Or maybe his fear of losing his treasured family again strengthened him.

Wiping the sweat off his temple, Tasuku asked, "You know the way back, Guy?"

Guy nodded. "I've memorized the map. Even if we're somehow lost, there are the signs on the floor."

"Then go now." Tasuku turned and ran down the staircase. "I'll catch up with you once I get the Fireball from Lava Cave."

"There's nothing left there, but be careful," Guy replied.

"I will."

Drimogemon waved a hand. "Be careful, y'all!"

Guy dashed past Hisoka and out of the tunnel. "Follow me, Mikage."

Despite pushing the cart by himself, Hisoka felt like pushing an empty shopping trolley. His legs could still go on although he'd run along the cliffside and the mountain trail without stopping, with barely any trees shielding him from the scorching sunlight. Whatever was giving him so much strength, it'd better stay until he reached the destination.

The further they went, the more trees and shrubs they found. And soon, they wound up in a forest. Beams of golden light peeked through the canopy and showered down upon them. Leaves and twigs crunched under rapid footfalls and metal wheels.

On the forest floor lay a screen, which contained directions to File City, but Guy didn't even look at it. And he went the right path and led them to another floor monitor, the one that was very close to File City. As expected from Guy, a man with excellent memorization skills.

Hisoka's ears registered a continuous crackle from behind. He almost turned around, but Tasuku's _"He doesn't have much time left!"_ replayed in his head and suppressed the reflex.

Guy rushed past him. Pushing the cart, Hisoka glanced over his shoulder.

Lightning bolts hurtled towards Guy, who swatted them away to the sky. Glaring at the incoming gang of ModokiBetamon, he put a foot in front of him and bent a knee.

Hisoka remained frozen in place, his mouth agape. Back in the dorm he often saw Guy practice karate moves and smash roof tiles with Kumon, and it was neat. But this time, the fighting stance alone exuded a very different aura.

Guy wouldn't hesitate to annihilate the ModokiBetamon gang; Hisoka could feel it. Even the ModokiBetamon shivered and crept back.

"Leave now, Mikage!" Guy shouted. "Arisugawa's heart can't possibly handle another electric shock!"

Hisoka blinked. What did Guy mean by that?

The ModokiBetamon leaped and spun, whizzing towards Guy as red circular saws.

"Leave!"

Hisoka nodded and pushed the cart away, not without stealing a glance at Guy. His jaw dropped in awe; Guy weaved through the blades with such dexterity and grace. His punches and kicks, flowing and crashing like the water, sent the ModokiBetamon slamming into the stout tree trunks.

Hisoka could fight just as well, but never as elegantly as Guy. The Organization never cared about aesthetics when they taught him how to fight.

The detritus-filled forest floor finally came to an end, and so did the palisades of trees around the path. Hisoka smiled broadly as soon as his foot thudded against the asphalt floor. "Arisu, hang in there," he said, gazing at the comatose Homare in the cart. He was still breathing, although weakly.

Even without its sign, one could identify the clinic from the big capsule on its rooftop and the green cross rug on its entrance. It'd need a sign if the town were bigger and had a pharmacy building though.

As soon as the automatic door opened, Hisoka rushed into the clinic and shouted, "Anyone here?"

The blue curtain beside Hisoka swayed, and a centaur galloped out of it.

"Agumon! Emergency!" Its voice muffled through its metal helmet. Pushing the cart through the curtain, it told Hisoka, "Please take a seat. I'll tell you once we're done stabilizing him."

"Thanks."

Hisoka's legs quivered as he limped towards the bench, wondering what Guy meant with, _"Arisugawa's heart can't possibly handle another electric shock!"_

Hisoka gasped, breaking out into a cold sweat as he froze on the spot. Didn't Homare sustain broken ribs on his left side?

Did Homare's heart _stop beating_ before this?


	14. History Almost Repeats Itself

"You really should take a break."

The words came out of Piyomon's beak just like that. No sympathy. Just annoyance. It sounded like nothing but a softened version of, "I don't need an incompetent assistant like you."

Not that Azuma had a good reason to argue. Had he tried harder to not worry about those who journeyed to Lava Cave, the customers wouldn't have ended up with wrong products over and over again. Piyomon wouldn't have needed to defend him from the angry customers.

"Sorry." Azuma walked out of the counter. The shop's automatic doors opened as he approached them. "I'll take my leave then."

Piyomon didn't even say a word at his departure.

Sunlight glinted off the metal patches on the walls of the surrounding buildings. The lack of trees in the town reminded Azuma of how much the blindingly bright sphere of light bugged him. His face burned and itched as he walked.

Digital World transformed the annoyance into burning hatred. Most people would blame the lack of skincare products, but in truth, nothing irked Azuma more than how nasty the sun could be. A while back it'd send golden rays of light through his apartment windows and tell him, "Morning has come and everyone is leaving." Now it shone so brightly and gloriously in the cloudless blue sky, as if mocking him.

With his hands in his pants pockets, the frowning Azuma strode aimlessly around the desolate road. Maybe he should sit by the fountain and let the sound of water clear his head. Moreover, Tsunomon wasn't around to ask him anything.

"Yukishiro!"

Azuma turned. "Guy?"

Guy ran towards him. At first Azuma thought of greeting his troupe mate with a smile as relief washed over him, but then he realized something.

A shout. A terrified face. Both of them came from Guy, a very calm man in Winter Troupe. He'd just come from the direction of Native Forest too.

Azuma's heart pounded so hard that he almost couldn't breathe.

"Yukishiro, I…" With a long face, Guy held Azuma's hand. "Please lean on me if you ever feel like it."

Azuma sensed bad news. Horrible news that would crush him like the moment he learned that his family's car had fallen into a cliff. Yet he still asked, "Guy, what happened?"

Guy simply led him to the clinic.

Chilling air and the pungent odor of disinfectant greeted him once they entered the building. Azuma shivered, so much that taking a step forward became a chore.

The blue curtain beside them swayed, and Agumon peeked out of it.

"Oh, you're that guy from the shop earlier!" The little dinosaur retreated. "Your friends are over here."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Guy smiled a bit. "Mikage made it in time."

Azuma's limbs went cold. "Guy…"

Azuma's limbs went cold, and his eyes widened in horror as soon as he and Guy walked through the curtain. Homare lay still on a bed, a bandage wrapped around his head and over an eye. A white blanket covered him up to his neck.

A tearful Hisoka sat on the chair beside the bed, holding Homare's bandaged hand as he muttered, "Arisu, get well soon, okay?"

The IV line connected to Homare's hand made Azuma queasy, but the moment he found a feeding tube attached to Homare's nose and a urine bag hanging by the bed, his legs faltered. Guy caught his collapsing body and wrapped his muscular arms around him.

History almost repeated itself.

The person he waited for almost failed to come home.

Supporting the limp, silent Azuma to the set of chairs beside the bed, Guy said, "I'm very sorry."

Agumon smiled at Azuma. "He'll be okay. We already gave him the medicine."

"Now that you mention it... Arisugawa's body is no longer flickering in and out of existence," Guy added.

Azuma's gaze fell to the clean ceramic floor. He knew, but that still didn't change the fact that Homare almost never returned. The cheerful man who recited wacky poems 24/7 was now a comatose man requiring a feeding tube and a urinary catheter to fulfill his daily needs.

"So," Azuma finally began, "is Tasuku okay? I didn't see him around."

"He stayed to explore Lava Cave." Guy patted Azuma's back. "He'll be fine. There's nothing left in-"

A series of rapid footsteps from behind the curtain cut him off. Then Tsumugi dashed in, sweaty and breathless, with a bulky leather sack in his hands.

He froze on the spot, the bag slipping out of his grip and hitting the ground with a loud thud.

"Tsukioka..." Guy muttered.

"Wh-what…" Tsumugi staggered towards Homare's bed, his legs shaking. "What happened?"

Instead of answering Tsumugi, Guy gave Azuma a worried look. "Yukishiro, mind if I tell the story?"

Azuma nodded. "I'm prepared for the worst." Easier said than done, if he had to be honest.

"Guy," Hisoka called from beside the bed, his hand still grasping Homare's, "tell me everything."

No words came out of Guy's gaping mouth, which only made Azuma's heart beat even faster and harder. He was not ready. At all.

After a gulp, Guy finally muttered, "Very well." He took a deep breath. "Because Arisugawa had the best heat resistance among us, we sent him to explore Lava Cave alone. We believed he'd defeated DeathMeramon when Drill Tunnel cooled off, but he never returned."

"Guy then decided to find Arisu," Hisoka continued. "I heard that Arisu evolved into his Beast Form and went wild."

Tsumugi's eyes widened. "Did you-"

"I'm sorry," Guy interrupted. "He attacked me, so I evolved into my Beast Form to defend myself. I quickly found out how to control the form and told Arisugawa about it, but he couldn't do anything." Tears glistening in his eyes, he looked away.

"So, you had no choice." Tsumugi stroked his chin and nodded. Then he smiled tearfully. "You did your best, Guy."

"But I…" Guy sobbed. "I could've done better than that."

Azuma's heart clenched. This was probably the first time he saw and heard the usually poker-faced Guy cry.

"I can't really know what Homare was thinking when he was trapped in his Beast Form, but I tried putting myself in his shoes." Tsumugi paused. "He'd _never_ want to hurt his friends. I'm sure that he'll thank you for snapping him out of it, even if he ends up like this."

"I…" Guy wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. "I almost killed him. Nobody will forgive me for that."

"I will," Hisoka said. "Guy, I'm sorry for being sulky around you earlier. Seeing Arisu like this reminded me of losing August and made me so scared." He inhaled. "Please tell me about what happened to Arisu's heart. I think I already knew what happened, but I just wanna be sure."

Oh, no.

Although his legs trembled, Azuma stood up. "I'm sorry. I don't think I can handle this." He limped through the curtain and out of the clinic, sobbing at his decision of getting close to other people.


	15. The Value of Memories

When Guy rose from his chair to follow Azuma, Tsumugi immediately told him, "Better give him some space right now."

Guy sat back down and gave the floor a dejected gaze.

Tsumugi hated to admit it, but sometimes distance, the _thing_ that once caused Winter Troupe to take almost a year to become a proper team, wasn't all that bad. The usual Azuma excelled at hiding his sorrow with a smile, but earlier, he didn't manage to. It was as if he were too crushed to smile.

You'd never want to rub salt into one's wound. Yet if they didn't do anything, Azuma might consider rebuilding the wall they'd once broken in the past.

"It's all right, Guy," Tsumugi reassured. "I'll talk to him later." Easier said than done; he didn't even know what to say to Azuma.

Guy nodded. "Very well." He looked at Hisoka. "About Arisugawa's heart…" He inhaled. "It already stopped beating once."

Tsumugi could feel his body function freeze for a moment. Good thing Azuma wasn't here.

"I thought he was truly gone, but I couldn't leave him be, so I gave him CPR." Tears ran down Guy's cheeks as he sobbed. "I'm very sorry, Mikage. I was the one who caused his heart to stop beating."

"Guy…" Tsumugi knew he had to say something as the troupe leader, but his brain had yet to recover from the shock.

"Guy, thank you for not giving up on Arisu when he appeared to have died." Hisoka smiled. "Maybe you'll never forget that you almost killed Arisu, but that's just how memory works. I've grown used to getting haunted by my past."

Good thing Hisoka opened a path for Tsumugi, but it made him feel kinda useless as a leader. Then again, Hisoka knew the best when it came about painful memories. "Right." Tsumugi approached Guy and placed a hand on the man's back. "I think it'll help if we focus on the present and the future right now."

"But," Guy said, "Arisugawa will suffer permanent-"

"Nah, all damage is temporary," Agumon cut in. "You guys are in-between flesh-and-blood and data here, but mostly data. Data can become anything, you know? Your friend will completely recover."

Tsumugi and Hisoka let out a sigh of relief, while Guy remained gloomy.

Maybe Tsumugi should just leave Guy be, like how he'd chosen to give Azuma some space. The decision somehow stung him; it was as if there were better ways to handle the situation, but he didn't know any.

Minutes passed in silence as he racked his brain for a better solution. Nothing came to his mind except...

"Agumon," he began, "how are we supposed to pay the medical expenses?" It certainly wasn't the best thing for Winter Troupe's situation, but he couldn't come up with anything else.

"Oh!" Agumon ran past Tsumugi and through the curtain. "Follow me."

"All right." Before following Agumon, Tsumugi smiled the best he could at Hisoka and Guy. "I'll be right back. Watch over Homare, okay?"

Both Guy and Hisoka nodded.

Agumon led Tsumugi to a wooden counter, behind which two bookshelves and a door with an _"Authorized Personnel Only"_ sign rested. Tsumugi might be remembering things wrong, but these things didn't exist in the game he and Tasuku used to play.

Agumon scanned the bookshelves before approaching the one beside the door. Then it pulled one of the thick hardback books from the bottom row and slammed it down on the counter. "Kentarumon's books are heavy." Agumon huffed.

Tsumugi saw the title _"Digital World Encyclopedia - Medicinal Plants and Fungi"_ and chuckled. "Encyclopedias tend to be like that."

Agumon opened the book, and its cover thudded against the counter. Flipping through the pages, it said, "As usual, we'll be asking for medicine ingredients-"

The door flung behind the counter open. Kentarumon the centaur Digimon walked out of it, with a sling bag in its hand.

Kentarumon approached Agumon. "Talking about payment? I've just gone through our supplies."

Agumon stopped flipping through the pages and looked at the centaur. "Just in time, Kentarumon! Any special requests?"

Kentarumon nodded. "I could use some Deluxe Mushrooms. Two should be enough for today."

Uh, oh… Tsumugi remembered how Tasuku would drag him into playing Digimon World with him just for that; for some reason, those very rare mushrooms popped up on the screen whenever Tsumugi controlled the player character.

Hopefully, his luck would bring Deluxe Mushrooms to him in this Digital World.

"Gotcha!" Agumon returned its focus to the encyclopedia and turned over the pages until it reached the one with a picture of a red mushroom. The cap of the fungus had a green spot on top of it. "This is the Deluxe Mushroom."

Tsumugi nodded. It resembled the one in his memory, but status… Or was it called stat gain? Stat booster? Ah, whatever its name was, that thing wouldn't translate well to their current situation, would it?

"These mushrooms only grow in the deeper parts of Native Forest. They help you regain the abilities you've lost from your injuries," Kentarumon said. "I need a lot of them to concoct the medicine for your friend."

"We'll get them for you," Tsumugi replied.

Kentarumon handed the sling bag to Tsumugi; even if a metal helmet concealed its face, Tsumugi could feel that it was smiling. "You can use this to keep those mushrooms. Also, I've given you some antidotes just in case you run into some RedVegimon and Alraumon."

"Oh, right, I heard about them from Vegimon. They're poisonous."

"But the most dangerous of all is Etemon," Agumon added. "It isn't poisonous, but it's a Perfect Digimon."

Kentarumon sighed. "That bastard robbed me so many times. I bet it has a lot of good stuff in its tree house."

How tempting! From what Tsumugi knew, Etemon's powers revolved around darkness; it shouldn't stand a chance against his light.

Giving the two Digimon a fierce, determined smile, Tsumugi slung the bag across his torso. "I'll fight it."

Both Agumon and Kentarumon screamed, "No!"

Well, it certainly wasn't the wisest idea, but imagine how much they could do with the loot.

Tsumugi was more than willing to give it a shot, even if he lacked combat experience. He was a leader; a leader should always give his all for his members' sake. At the same time, though, he could see his troupe mates, especially Tasuku, pushing him to the backseat as they fought against Etemon.

Winter Troupe really should stop treating him like glass.

"Seriously, don't try it!" Kentarumon exclaimed. "I was lucky that Etemon only took my stuff whenever I ran into him!"

"I'll rethink about it." Tsumugi turned around and saw Guy peeking out of the curtain. "Guy?"

Guy walked towards him. "Tsukioka, please take me with you. I can control my Beast Form." His smile, a gentle, genuine one, warmed Tsumugi's heart, although it still didn't look as bright as Tsumugi wanted it to be.

But then Tsumugi remembered a few things. Guy had just returned from Lava Cave, and Tasuku had mentioned something about Beetle Land back when they discussed their plans. A tournament for insectoid Digimon would happen in a day or two, and the winner would get the Beetle Pearl, another item Jijimon needed for the portal. Only Guy qualified for the tournament thanks to what he'd evolve into.

"I'll do whatever I can to help Arisugawa," Guy added, his eyes glistening with tears. "I can never erase my past as a man who almost killed him, but I can always make up for my deed, correct?"

"Guy…" A part of Tsumugi wanted to convince Guy that it was no big deal and he should rest up and prepare for the tournament, but another part of Tsumugi thought a downhearted Guy wouldn't do well in the tournament.

If this would help Guy get over his guilt, then why not?

"Let's go then," Tsumugi finally said.

Guy nodded. "Thank you."

"Be careful!" Kentarumon shouted.

"We will." Tsumugi strode to the area behind the blue curtain. "We're off, Hisoka, Homare."

From the chair beside Homare's bed, Hisoka waved a hand. "I'll take good care of Arisu."

As Tsumugi walked out of the clinic, Guy asked, "Did you just talk to Arisugawa? Is he awake?"

"No. It's just that comatose people can actually hear us."

Guy raised an eyebrow. "They can?" Then he laughed softly.

Tsumugi blinked. "Guy?"

"I talked to Arisugawa when I carried him out of Lava Cave. I thought he wouldn't hear me, but I still felt like telling him some kind words. It was both silly and soothing at the same time."

"Soothing, huh?" That word sparked an idea in Tsumugi's head. "You really have changed."

"I've changed?"

"What would an android feel about this?"

"Pointless. That's all." Guy made that gentle, genuine smile again; this time, Tsumugi barely saw any darkness in it. "Tsukioka, thank you. I used to believe myself to be an android, but I wouldn't have felt this happy if I'd chosen to forget that foolish act of mine."

The little success made Tsumugi want to talk to Azuma now, but what should he, as a leader, say to the older man?

Guy looked up at the sky. Gray clouds had gathered together in the horizon, threatening to engulf the shining sun. "Memories, good or bad, are precious, aren't they?"

"Yeah," Tsumugi answered absentmindedly, walking past the fountain at the center of the business district. Unimon stood beside the fountain, its gaze fixed at him and Guy.

"Did you just say 'memories?'" the winged unicorn asked.

"Yes."

Unimon looked down. "Plotmon..."

"Unimon?" Tsumugi asked.

"Ah, sorry." Unimon returned its gaze to Tsumugi and Guy. "If you guys meet Azuma, could you deliver my message to him?"

Should be a message related to work, Tsumugi thought as he nodded. Azuma worked as a shopkeeper with Unimon after all.

"I saw Azuma walk out of the clinic and towards Jijimon's house. I wanted to tell him something, but he didn't seem to be in the mood to listen," Unimon said. "I'm still not that familiar with him yet, but I can always sense some kind of barrier around him. Like, he doesn't really want to get close with others."

"You can feel that too?"

"He's always been like that?"

"Yeah. He always believes that if you get too close with someone, it'll hurt more when that person leaves you," Tsumugi replied. "We managed to make him change his mind, but he probably still isn't that comfortable with strangers. But judging from his reaction at Homare's condition…" He scowled. "He might just return to that mindset."

"Please tell him to allow others into his life. Make a lot of memories with your friends, so that you can cherish them when things finally come to an end. I..." Unimon's lips trembled. Then it turned around and galloped away. "W-well, excuse me."

Myriads of questions popped up in Tsumugi's mind. Plotmon? Unimon's message? The winged unicorn's inability to speak too much? What had actually happened to the Digimon?

Yet Tsumugi decided to cast them aside for now. Unimon had said something that Azuma might need to hear and ponder about.

"Is that the message?" Guy asked. "I thought it'd be related to work."

"I thought of the same thing too." Tsumugi ran along the desolate asphalt road. "Come on, Guy. Let's visit Azuma before going to Native Forest."

It didn't take long for them to reach the end of the asphalt road and the beginning of a lush ground. A two-story building - Jijimon's House - loomed in the distance, puffs of smoke flying out of its chimney.

Tsumugi stopped before the terrace, where he saw Jijimon sweeping the dust off the wooden floor. Beads of sweat ran down his temple as he panted.

"Jijimon, w-we'd like to talk to Azuma." Then Tsumugi felt a hand patting his back; glancing over his shoulder, he saw a smiling Guy.

"You shouldn't have run," Guy said. "Or you could've asked me to carry you."

"Thanks, Guy." Tsumugi returned his gaze to Jijimon, who had stopped sweeping.

"I wouldn't do that now if I were you," the Digimon said. "Azuma is taking a nap upstairs."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JP - Dub names
> 
> Alraumon - Aruraumon  
> Plotmon - Salamon


	16. Detour

Rumbling sounds echoed as lightning forked across the gray clouds in the sky. Damn, Tasuku should've returned to File City once he got the Fireball; now, a downpour would beat down on him...

No. Mount Panorama was so close to Drill Tunnel and had some good stuff he couldn't find at Native Forest; just look at these Big Berries growing on the bush! Tasuku could make some juice from these big, round strawberry-like fruits to help Homare regain the muscles he'd lose as he recovered from his injuries.

Judging from all the craters and rubble in Lava Cave, Tasuku thought Homare must've sustained a lot of broken bones. The poor poet would certainly take a long time to get back on his feet.

Picking the Big Berries from the shrub, Tasuku wished that this Digital World would be more similar to the game; the lack of rainy weather would let him explore the mountain as long as he wanted. However, when he gave his wish a deeper thought, he just remembered that these berries would then exist as a lone fruit that lay on the ground.

After keeping the berries in his backpack, Tasuku looked around for the exit. Mount Panorama might not have any direction screens on the ground, but some unusual objects existed there. Hell, Tasuku had actually found a giant socket on the lush floor when he made his way to the berry shrub; before that, he'd come across an inactive electric generator and a fridge.

Another out-of-ordinary thing Tasuku had found was a headstone with _"Here Lies Plotmon"_ inscribed on its surface. It rested amid those clusters of big weird flowers and orbs, bound together by a mesh of purple root-like things. Why would a Digimon make a grave? When they died, they'd simply explode into radiant dust and fade away.

There really was no point in making one.

For a moment, Tasuku thought he sounded like Homare and Guy there. At least the broken cyborg and the android of Winter Troupe clearly cared for the troupe, even if they didn't really understand one's feelings. Not like him, who generally understood how one felt but sucked at caring for others.

Scowling, Tasuku retraced his steps to the socket and the headstone. The clusters of flowers and orbs gradually diminished as he walked.

He wound up at the slope with the electric generator. That thing, towering over him like a cabin in the middle of the woods, had blocked an Alraumon from his sight when he first came here. Fortunately Alraumon was a Child Digimon, so Tasuku could simply kick it away like a soccer ball. Not that he liked what he'd done anyway; if the plant kid hadn't attacked him, he wouldn't have bothered it.

He strode past the generator, ears perked up. Mount Panorama didn't have many wild Digimon surprisingly, but it would never hurt to stay alert in the wilderness. Chirping birds, rustling leaves, rumbling clouds-

And a whoosh.

Tasuku sidestepped, and a set of vines whizzed past him. One grazed him in the cheek and left behind a cut. Golden particles flew out of the wound.

"Not again!" He grabbed the retracting vines and turned. An Alraumon greeted him with a death glare, the vine-like fingers on its other hand stretching out at Tasuku.

Tasuku caught the vines and whirled. "Stop bothering me!" And he threw Alraumon away. The Digimon shrieked as it rocketed across the sky.

The cut on his face burned and throbbed. Wincing with a hand on the wound, Tasuku resumed his walk past the generator and down the mountain trail. A wild Digimon might just attack him as he treated the cut here.

The wound wanted him to treat it now. The skin and flesh around it swelled so much that he had to go on with an eye screwed shut. Damn Alraumon and its poison!

Tasuku halted beside a broken fridge, placed a hand on the metal door for support, and huffed. Then he resumed his journey downhill. By the time he found himself crushing dry twigs under his shoes and surrounded by large trees, the other half of his face had swollen as well; now, he could barely feel the breeze that blew against his face.

Whether it was safe or not, Tasuku put down his backpack and dropped to his knees. The swelling forced his other eye to close, and he barely located the zipper. How the hell could he find the antidote now?

An incoming series of rapid footsteps interrupted his search. Then he heard a familiar voice calling, "Tasuku!"

"Tsumugi?"

"Tsukioka, antidote," another familiar voice said.

"Huh-" A bottle spout to the mouth cut him off, and liquid poured into his mouth and rushed down his throat. He almost pulled back on reflex at the sheer sourness of the drink, but the hand on the back of his head stopped him. Yeah, he could tell that it was Tsumugi's doing; only Tsumugi's small, delicate hands could give such a gentle touch.

The swelling around Tasuku's face lessened, and his wound stung less now. When his eyes fluttered open, he saw a concerned Tsumugi crouching before him with an empty vial and a band-aid in his hands. Guy stood beside Tsumugi, looking just as worried.

When Tsumugi stuck the band-aid on the cut, Tasuku noticed the sling bag across Tsumugi's torso and gasped. "What are _you_ doing here?" he asked.

"Kentarumon asked us to find two Deluxe Mushrooms." Tsumugi got up, capped the vial, and put it in his sling bag. "It's to pay Homare's medical expenses."

Tasuku wore his backpack and stood up. "Why don't you just stay in the town? It's dangerous here."

"I wanna find and fight Etemon. We can get a lot of resources from its tree house."

An image of the badly injured Homare flashed across Tasuku's mind, and he seized Tsumugi by his collar. "Are you crazy? Etemon is-"

"Calm down, Tasuku!" Tsumugi shoved Tasuku away. Where did all the strength come from? And that fierce glare… Damn, Tsumugi rarely got angry but when he did, it always sent chills down Tasuku's spine.

"Tsukioka is not alone." Guy smiled at Tasuku. "Why don't you join us? Let's fight Etemon together."

"We still gotta be careful," Tasuku responded. "Etemon is strong _and_ has many tricks up its sleeve."

"I have an elemental advantage over Etemon. Also, it's three-on-one. We'll beat it for sure."

Tsumugi sounded dead serious, as if he'd attack and kill Etemon even if it didn't bother them. It unnerved Tasuku for several reasons, Tsumugi's safety for one. The durability of Wolfmon's armor depended on its state of mind; should it harbor negativity, the armor would become brittle.

Anger was bad, and so was the intent to kill. Tsumugi would end up fighting with a fragile armor.

"Uh, I think we'd better continue our journey now." Tasuku pointed at the cloudy sky. "It's gonna rain soon."

"Right." Tsumugi led the way. "I remember that we can find a Deluxe Mushroom near the toilet in the south."

"Toilet?" Guy blinked. "Digimon needs it?"

"Well, failing to take your Digimon to the toilet in _Digimon World_ will cause it to evolve into a Sukamon. A literal poop." Tasuku remembered how Tsumugi often evolved his Patamon into that thing, but mentioning it right now wouldn't be a good idea.

"A literal poop…" Guy couldn't contain his laughter.

It didn't last long. Tsumugi didn't even look back, let alone say a thing.

Returning to his usual poker-face, Guy began, "Tsukioka, can I say something?"

Tsumugi glanced over his shoulder. "Yes?"

"You shouldn't bring emotion into combat. It'll cloud your mind."

Tsumugi stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening. Then his face crumpled into a sad look. "You're right. Sorry, I just got a lot in my mind right now."

"About Arisugawa, is it?" Tasuku asked.

"Azuma too. He was so sad after seeing Homare's condition. I thought he should feel better after a nap, but I feel like I could do something better than leaving him to recover alone." Tsumugi frowned. "I just wanna do whatever I can to help everyone. As a leader."

"I understand how you feel." Smiling, Tasuku placed his hands on Tsumugi's shoulders. "You once said that we can always share and carry the burden of each other's pain together, didn't you?"

Tsumugi nodded.

"At least let us carry some of it too. I..." Tasuku hated this, but his heart told him to speak up. "I didn't take a detour for no good reason."

"What did you do after getting the Fireball, Takato?" Guy asked. "Speaking of, where did you keep it?"

"Oh, it's just a ball in the shape of fire, so I got no problem keeping it in my backpack." Tasuku chuckled. "I went to Mount Panorama to gather stuff. Got some Big Berries for Arisugawa."

"I remember that you can feed your Digimon those berries to keep it full and help it gain weight," Tsumugi commented.

Raising an eyebrow, Guy scratched his head. "Tsukioka...sure knows a lot."

"Of course Tsumugi does," Tasuku proudly said, complete with a proud smile. "Whenever he plays the game, rare items always spawn here and there."

Tsumugi's face flushed a bit as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I hope my luck can be of use here." When the sky flashed, he resumed his walk. "Come on-" A loud bang echoed as leaves fell from the swaying tree branches and flew across the forest. "Let's move!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JP - Dub names
> 
> Wolfmon - Lobomon


	17. Monkey Business

Tsumugi searched the bush around the public toilet, acid crawling up his throat as he moved. Sanitation workers didn't exist in Digital World, did they? But for Winter Troupe's sake, he'd endure the stench. Also, the odor didn't seem to bother Tasuku and Guy; he, as a leader, had better not lose to them.

They found no Deluxe Mushroom. Hell, they couldn't even find a single Digimushroom or Happy Mushroom as consolation.

Frowning, Tsumugi strode away from the toilet. The odor slowly died away, and a few steps later, his nose only sensed the scent of fresh soil and foliage. What a relief.

Blinding white jags streaked across the gray sky, bringing with them a deafening bang. With an arm, Tsumugi shielded his face from the wind and the incoming dust and leaves. He still lowered his defense to pick up the mushrooms on the ground, though, even if they were just Digimushrooms. Guy could always turn those black mushrooms into a fine dinner.

Soon, Tsumugi's legs ached as his chest tightened. For a moment, he wanted to take a break, but the thoughts of the comatose Homare and his distraught troupe mates gave him the strength to press on.

The pain and fatigue vanished as soon as he spotted a monkey in the distance. He rushed to a nearby tree, hid behind it, and observed the creature. Shades concealed its eyes. Stitches marred its body.

Etemon.

It also had a Deluxe Mushroom in its hands.

Tsumugi scowled. This perfect opportunity for a surprise attack would go away once he shouted, _"Spirit Evolution!"_ or retreat to evolve.

He felt a hand on each of his shoulders. Behind him Tasuku and Guy stood with a smile.

"Go for the head," Guy whispered.

Tsumugi nodded. Gentle heat crept around his glowing fist, growing hotter with each passing second. Then he stepped forward and punched, launching a burst of light at Etemon.

It struck the monkey in its head, and the Deluxe Mushroom slipped out of the creature's grasp. Clutching its charred head, Etemon turned with a scowl. "Who-" The frown became a wicked grin.

Tsumugi should've known that the attack wouldn't work, but it was worth trying anyway. Now that Etemon had seen them, time to go all out.

A mic manifested in the monkey's hand.

"Not that thing!" Tasuku lunged at Etemon, who leaped onto a tree branch.

Tsumugi reached out a hand; maybe, just maybe, he could power through the weakening effect of Etemon's Love Serenade and beat the monkey down. After crossing his arms, he swiped his hand against the non-existent D-Scanner in his other hand. "Spirit Evolution!"

Just as his body glowed, a long, melodious, _"oh"_ echoed. The radiance faded, his legs faltered, and he crashed into the ground. Dirt and leaves clung to his clothes.

Whatever he did, his body refused to move.

Tasuku lay in the distance, cursing as he struggled to get up. A smirking Etemon towered before him and picked up his limp body.

Then it snatched the backpack from Tasuku and dropped him back to the ground.

Clawing at the moist, loamy soil, Tsumugi growled at the approaching Etemon. His anger forced his body to move and get up-

And throw a fist at the monkey.

Etemon dodged it with a tilt of its head. "Nice try." In a flash, it nabbed Tsumugi's sling bag. Bolting away and grabbing the Deluxe Mushroom in its way, it laughed. "See ya!"

Damn it all!

Brow furrowed, jaw clenched, Tsumugi reached out a hand. Then he crossed his arms and swiped his hand against the non-existent D-Scanner in his other hand. "Spirit Evolution!"

Tsumugi's body glowed, and everything went numb. As his body grew and transformed, images of an armored wolf man swinging a pair of lightsabers and firing its arm cannon flashed across his mind.

When he regained his senses, he found out that he was now the wolf man in the flashes, with a lilac striped scarf fluttering in the breeze. The light around him faded.

"Wolfmon!" Swords in hands, Tsumugi rushed past the sprawled Tasuku.

"Tsumugi-"

Tsumugi ignored Tasuku and hacked down the tree branches that blocked his path, his eyes fixated at the scurrying Etemon in the distance. This was no longer a matter of looting Etemon's tree house; now it was a matter of punishing the Digimon for stealing their hard-earned items.

A massive tree stood loomed before them. Etemon halted before the door on the base of its trunk and slammed a hand against it. The door slid up, and the monkey ran in.

Roaring, Tsumugi sprang at the door and went through it right before it closed. He wound up in a chamber with a bed, a dining table, and a large wooden crate, illuminated by the little beam of sunlight that peeked through the lone window beside him.

That annoyingly smooth _"oh"_ resounded in his ears again and forced him down to his knees. Gnashing his teeth, he plunged his swords into the ground for support. His body glowed as his strength slowly faded.

He must not revert. He must not revert. He. Must. Not. Revert.

The radiance died.

The singing stopped. "Pretty stubborn, ain'tcha?" a familiar voice asked from behind him.

Strength returning to his body, Tsumugi got up and glanced over his shoulder. Etemon stood at the corner of the chamber, coated in writhing dark energy.

Spheres of darkness shot out of the Digimon.

Tsumugi charged at Etemon, his lightsabers slicing through the orbs like a hot knife through butter. Etemon merely grinned as he dashed and slid down with a leg extended.

Tsumugi jumped over the monkey. This silly Digimon shouldn't have used a sliding tackle against him, who had watched Tasuku play soccer and heard his rambling about it countless times.

As Etemon regained its composure, Tsumugi hunched and crossed his lightsabers across his chest. Then he flashed through the monkey and left behind a big X on its torso. Golden particles gushed out of the wound as the dark energy around its body faded.

Etemon shrieked.

Time to end this damned thief.

Tsumugi sprang Etemon and whirled. The monkey limped away, but Tsumugi, now a raging hurricane of slashing light, caught up with it and ripped the Digimon to shreds. Its remains burst into shiny dust.

Once he stopped spinning and landed on the ground, his lightsabers slipped out of his quivering hands and crumbled to dust. Light engulfed him, and he reverted.

Then he collapsed, breathless and sweating profusely. His head and heart pounded. His vision blurred and spun. Every little move he made struck his entire body with pain and forced a yelp out of his mouth.

He could only lie still and wait for Tasuku and Guy, if they knew where he'd gone anyway. Also, his ears had begun registering the steady drumming of water against a solid surface from the outside, which would complicate their search. He sighed; why did he always need to be rescued and protected by his troupe mates?

Growling through his gritted teeth, he forced his aching body to inch ahead. Their backpack lay there, at the corner of the room; there had to be something to revitalize him.

A loud boom reverberated, and the door exploded into chunks of wood. A lion man clad in a black armor rushed to him and picked him up in his arms. Pain surged across his body, at which he groaned.

"Tsumugi! What did Etemon do to you?"

Tsumugi smiled weakly. "It's dead, Tasuku."

Tasuku's eyes widened. "Dead? You _killed_ it?"

"Yeah."

Tasuku remained speechless for a while, his eyes still widened. Tsumugi would guess that behind the leonine helmet Tasuku's mouth was agape.

"By the way," Tsumugi began, "how did you find me?"

"You left a trail of clean-cut branches."

Oh, right, Tsumugi did chop off a lot of branches in a fit of rage. A pang of guilt shot up from his chest and erased the smile from his face; trees never deserved that kind of treatment.

Tasuku gave Tsumugi a gentle look. "Anyway, I'll carry you back to File City once the rain stops."

"I should be strong enough to walk after a quick rest."

"You idiot!" Tasuku stormed towards the bed. "Whether you can walk or not, I'm carrying you back!" Despite his yelling, he still placed Tsumugi down on the bed very carefully, as if he were glass.

"Takato." Guy, in his Blitzmon form, approached them with their backpack in his armored hands.

"Oh, right, we probably have something to relieve fatigue and pain."

Once Guy put down the backpack, Tasuku knelt down, opened it, and rummaged through the items within. "It's this one." He pulled a vial of purple liquid out of the bag and uncapped it. "I still prefer having recovery items, but the way this Digital World modified the effects of those rare plants and mushrooms aren't too shabby." Placing a hand under Tsumugi and gently pushing him up to a sitting position, he said, "Open your mouth, Tsumugi."

Tsumugi's face flushed. "T-tasuku-"

"Didn't you do the same to me earlier?" Tasuku cut in; yeah, he had to be grinning mischievously behind that helmet. "Now it's my turn."

Okay, fair, but getting fed by a member of your troupe, your childhood friend, was still so embarrassing.

The liquid tasted both sweet and sour, with a dash of mint. It soothed his muscles, so much that he didn't feel like struggling against the gentle darkness that slowly swept him away.

"Rest well, Tsumugi," Tasuku told him, and everything went black.


	18. Blikmon the Mind Reader

Only Blikmon could make a TV in Digital World work. Once it projected what it saw in the world into the device, the screen would display it for everyone. What a wondrous perk, gained from being one of the three creators of Digital World. It let him check on Homare without having to get close to him, but if Blikmon ever wished to read his mind, it'd still need to approach him.

Blikmon would never show its monitoring ability to Winter Troupe, though. How unsettling it would be to learn that it was watching over them all the time, even if it were for their sake? Not that it could do much when something happened anyway; everything was still in Jijimon's hands.

Jijimon was, unfortunately, a bad decision maker more often than not.

"Why did you stop the rain so soon?" Blikmon pointed at the screen; Tasuku, as Lowemon, ran across a forest with a sleeping Tsumugi in his arms. Behind him Guy, as Blitzmon, was carrying a giant crate, a backpack, and a sling bag. "Let Guy and Tasuku bond for a bit!"

"Tsumugi could use a better place to sleep, Loupe-"

Blikmon pulled Monzaemon's ear. "Call us by our Digimon identity, Monzaemon!"

Monzaemon flailed its arms. "Sorry!"

Blikmon released Monzaemon's ear. It might sound silly to some that it fussed over something that trivial, but when would it get another chance to "live" as a Digimon and express all the pent-up emotion with actions? It wished that Jijimon had given it a more expressive form, though; a tin robot couldn't make any facial expressions other than a perpetual frown, the expression it was born with.

Jijimon would erase this world once Winter Troupe returned to the real world, so Blikmon had better make the most out of it.

"Well, those two need some rest too, considering what they're planning to do tomorrow," Jijimon replied. "They're likely tired from staying alert in the tree house to protect Tsumugi."

"There's always next time, Blikmon." Monzaemon patted Blikmon's back. "I'm sure that Tasuku will enjoy working out at Green Gym. He might as well drag Guy there."

Blikmon sighed. "As if he will have the time for that. He chooses to be a walking Digimon encyclopedia for Winter Troupe 24/7."

"That reminds me, they haven't checked the entire town yet." Jijimon stroked its bearded chin. "The restaurant, the bulletin board, Green Gym…" It chuckled. "They're so focused on going home."

Blikmon facepalmed. "They should slow down. Homare will die or have to live on with permanent brain damage if they go back before he fully recovers."

"True. Everything will go downhill from that," Jijimon added. "Azuma will shut off himself, Hisoka will be devastated, but worst of all, Winter Troupe will fall apart. It'll greatly affect Mankai as a whole."

"Can I extend this day by 24 hours?" Monzaemon asked. "This will delay the Beetle Tournament by a day and let them rest and bond a bit more."

"I quite like that idea, but will it be safe? Something odd is going on in this world." Blikmon looked at Jijimon, shutting down the TV in the process. "I can no longer detect any activities at Mount Infinity. Are you still in control of that region?"

Jijimon shook its head. "Winter Troupe doesn't have to go there anyway. Also, I have set up an invisible barrier to protect the town from whatever is in there."

"That will never be enough." Blikmon sighed. "You shouldn't have given the Digimon some degree of free will, Jijimon. They will rebel against us someday, especially if they know-" The ceiling creaked; Blikmon hoped nobody in Winter Troupe knew that it was merely an alarm set by Jijimon. "Oh, Azuma is up."

Monzaemon dropped to the ground with a thud, while Blikmon willed its winding key to stop. The gears within its body spun more slowly and finally came to a halt.

Footsteps drew closer to the living room. Azuma descended the staircase and walked past them with a small smile.

"Feeling better now?" Jijimon asked.

"Yes." Azuma headed to the exit door and opened it, unaware that Blikmon's gaze had been following him. "I guess I'll work at the shop again." As Azuma left the house and closed the door, Blikmon heard, _"It feels good to distance myself from others."_

"Blikmon," Jijimon called.

Blikmon's winding key spun again, and so did the gears within its body. "This is bad. Someone must talk to him."

"Azuma needs to hear Unimon's message." Monzaemon rose to its feet. "Sadly, the time is never right. Earlier Azuma was taking a nap. Now Tsumugi is sleeping. There's only Guy left, but I'm afraid that he can't deliver the message well."

"If he wishes to touch Azuma's heart with that message, he must first know the story behind it."

"We should tell him-"

Someone knocked on the door, but Monzaemon and Blikmon stood there instead of playing dead. As much as Blikmon hated to admit it, Winter Troupe needed their help again.

No more deus ex machina like in the past. Just a nudge or two this time.

Jijimon opened the door, and Tasuku, as Lowemon, stepped in with a sleeping Tsumugi in his arms.

"Welcome back," Jijimon greeted. "You should revert."

"I will once I put him down on his bed." Tasuku rushed into the house, past the living room, and up the staircase. Creaks echoed from above.

"Where's Guy?" Monzaemon asked.

"Likely the clinic. He carried their loot all the way back, remember?" Blikmon wished it could smile now. "I have an idea." It propelled itself into the air and then flew across the living room and up the stairs, wondering what was in Tasuku's mind right now.

By the time Blikmon entered the guest room upstairs, Tasuku had reverted. The man was sitting on a chair beside Tsumugi's bed, watching over his slumbering childhood friend as if he were a baby.

He looked at Blikmon, his eyebrow quirked. "Huh? Blikmon?" Blikmon's silence turned his face into a scowl. "What are you doing here? If you have something in your mind, speak up."

Blikmon shrugged. "Says the man who could never truly let out what is in his mind."

"Oi!" Tasuku exclaimed. When Blikmon focused on him, it heard, _"What the hell? This Digimon seems to know me very well, but how?"_

"Have you visited Homare?"

Tasuku shook his head. _"I really want to see Arisugawa, but who will take care of Tsumugi here?"_ Blikmon heard.

"You should visit him before it is too late."

"What?" Eyes widening, Tasuku stood up. "Did his condition get worse?"

"Not quite, but you should know that a sleeping man will eventually wake up, while a comatose man might never wake up again. You catch my drift?"

Tasuku looked down, his fists clenched, the corners of his lips taking a downturn. "Please watch over him, Blikmon. I'll be right back." Then he stormed out of the bedroom. _"Sorry, Tsumugi. I'm really worried about Arisugawa too,"_ he said in his heart.

Blikmon chuckled; as expected, Tasuku was easy to fool. The funny thing? He always claimed that he sucked at caring for others, but his actions always said otherwise.

It wondered how Tasuku would react upon seeing Homare in the clinic, comatose and having a feeding tube and a urinary catheter attached to him.

Blikmon stared at the sleeping Tsumugi and heard, _"I hope Etemon's treasures are enough to pay Homare's medical expenses and feed us for a few days. I still need to talk to Azuma. After that, I-"_

The Digimon looked away and sighed. "Are you asleep or awake, worrywart?"

Tsumugi stirred and groaned, and his eyes fluttered open.

Blikmon returned its gaze to Tsumugi. "Good to know that you care a lot about Winter Troupe, but you cannot shoulder everything by yourself. It will do more harm than good."

Tsumugi closed his eyes again. _"I feel like Blikmon just read my mind and talked to me. Maybe I'm dreaming?"_ he asked in his mind. _"I think I need more rest before dealing with our troupe's problems."_

Blikmon nodded, wishing that it could give Tsumugi a gentle smile. "Wise decision."

A click and a creak echoed from behind Blikmon. The door opened, and a smiling Monzaemon stepped in. "I'll take care of him."

Blikmon nodded. "All right."

Off to the clinic it went.


	19. Conversing with the Comatose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I've been slow with updates because I shifted my focus to another A3 fic writing event. But now I'm back here, and plan to do Nano 2020 with it. Expect fast updates on November (unless I have a lot of work IRL)!

Homare lay still on the bed, his eye closed, his breathing fast and shallow. The sight alone made Hisoka's heart clench. And the silence… Hisoka would never get used to it.

Honestly, Hisoka would love to hear Homare make some noise right now, even if it were just a little groan. Yet no matter how much Hisoka rambled, there was nothing but silence.

"Arisu, remember what happened during _My Master's Mesmerized by Mystery_ run?" The smiling Hisoka squeezed Homare's hand. It felt cold. "You lost your pocket watch and tried to find it. Then you gave up just like that. It made me so sad." He frowned. "I don't really understand you, but that time, I felt like you were trying to not look sad. You were feeling so hurt inside, weren't you?"

Of course Homare wouldn't answer, but Hisoka would keep rambling anyway.

"I know how it feels to lose something so important to you. It hurts." He paused. "Losing August hurt so much, but Winter Troupe helped me get over the pain." He smiled again, with tears welling in his eyes. "Especially you. You're noisy and meddlesome, but… You're kind. Really kind. Just like August. Sometimes you make me feel like August is still around."

Still no answer.

Footsteps echoed. The curtain swayed, and Guy stepped into the area with a wooden crate and a backpack in his hands. After setting them down on the floor, he slumped against a chair at the corner and huffed.

"You should rest, Guy," Hisoka said.

Guy only scowled, as if wanting to say, _"But everyone doesn't look well right now. Something has to be done."_

"You worked hard." Hisoka pointed at the crate. "Is that enough to cover Arisu's medical expenses?"

Guy nodded. "It's enough for a few weeks of inpatient care. According to Kentarumon, we can save a lot for ourselves because Arisugawa should be able to leave the clinic in a week or two." He gave the comatose Homare a sad look. "I highly doubt it however. He needs a breathing aid, but the clinic doesn't give him one."

"Kentarumon says that inpatients are very rare. Many Digimon can live without breathing too," Hisoka replied. "Having the stuff for breathing aid isn't worth the price."

"I'm afraid to imagine the pain Arisugawa will be in once he wakes up."

"That's why I wanna stay by his side. I'll do whatever I can to comfort him."

Guy's eyes widened as he remained speechless for a moment. Then he finally said, "It's...unusual to see Mikage like this."

"Because Arisu always took care of me and never really asked anything in return. All while I..." Hisoka couldn't bring himself to complete the sentence. The lump in his throat was too bothersome, and he was barely holding back his tears.

Instead of finishing his line, he went to stroke Homare's bandaged head.

Silence returned to the area again, save for the whirring of air conditioners. As a wielder of the Ice element, Hisoka no longer had a good sense of room temperature; whether the room felt cold or not, he'd take off his coat and cover the already blanketed Homare with it. His poor friend probably didn't even have the strength to warm himself up...

Hisoka would've gladly done that if Kentarumon hadn't suggested that they kept Homare cool. According to the centaur, it'd lessen the brain damage.

A series of rapid footfalls from the distance broke the silence. Hisoka turned to see Tasuku running through the curtains and stopping beside the bed.

"Arisugawa…" He looked at Hisoka with a concerned face. "What did…" His voice wavered. "What did Kentarumon say about his condition?"

"He should be able to leave the clinic in a week or two and will recover fully," Guy answered with a frown. "I highly doubt it however."

"I hate to admit it but...I agree." Tasuku placed a hand on Homare's face and tried to speak, but no words came out of his gaping mouth.

"Tasuku," Hisoka said, "at times like this, you should be honest with your feelings."

Tasuku growled. "You're the last person I want to hear that from."

"Just speak up."

"What's the point? He's-"

"Excuse me."

A robotic voice drew Hisoka's and Tasuku's attention. As expected, it fitted no one but the tin robot that flew towards them.

"Blikmon?" Tasuku asked.

"Talk to Homare, not me," Blikmon grumbled.

"He's comatose. He won't hear me."

Blikmon sighed. "Excuses."

"Tsukioka told me that comatose people can actually hear us," Guy cut in. "You should talk, Takato."

"I hope Arisu hears me, but even if he doesn't, talking to him actually makes me feel good," Hisoka added. "You should give it a try."

"Who knows, someday you might find yourself in a play in which you have to converse with a comatose person. This can be a good practice."

Hisoka sensed mischief in Blikmon's tone, which unnerved him a bit. The tin robot seemed to know Tasuku a lot, despite it being known for its unwillingness to speak to strangers. Or maybe they had actually talked? Or did Tsumugi talk too much?

"When you put it that way, you have a point." Tasuku took a deep breath as he returned his focus to Homare. "Arisugawa, I…" He inhaled again. "I don't know if you hear me or not, but I really hope that you'll get well soon. If a ball of sunshine like you had never joined Mankai, Winter Troupe would've been cold and gloomy like a harsh winter." He smiled and much to Hisoka's surprise, didn't bother looking away despite having tears in his eyes. "Gotta admit, your weird poems and antics give Winter Troupe so much life."

"You sounded genuine." Hisoka smiled. "You should be like that more often."

"It was just…" Tasuku's face flushed as he wiped the tears off his eyes. "Uh, an acting practice."

"Yes, whatever you say," Blikmon snarked.

Hisoka chuckled. "If Arisu can hear you, I'm sure that he'll be happy." And undoubtedly, Homare would be really noisy about it once he regained his consciousness, but Hisoka would keep an eye shut for the time being. Maybe Tasuku would too.

"Speaking of which, you people need to talk to Azuma," Blikmon continued. "Homare's condition devastated him to the point that he might distance himself like in the past."

"Right, I haven't delivered Unimon's message to Yukishiro," Guy said.

"What is it?" Tasuku asked.

"'Please tell him to allow others into his life. Make a lot of memories with your friends, so that you can cherish them when things finally come to an end.'"

"Unimon…" Hisoka remembered why he loved Winter Troupe, especially Homare. Hisoka had started out as an amnesiac man, a blank slate, and acting and living with Winter Troupe had filled his life with many memorable moments; despite how annoying Homare could be, he in particular had generated the most as well as reminded him of August. "I like its way of thinking."

"Mikage, you should deliver it to Azuma," Tasuku suggested with a smile. "You know the most when it comes to cherishing memories."

"If you wish to touch Azuma's heart, you should know the story behind the message before delivering it," Blikmon said. "I bet none of you knows the story."

Everyone shook their heads.

"It will be very rude of me to tell you something Unimon has been extremely secretive about," Blikmon replied. "You should seek Unimon and ask it yourself."

Tasuku nodded. "I heard he works at the item shop at midnight-"

Blikmon interrupted, "You do not want to ruin its mood at work, do you?"

"Sorry."

"Unimon should be visiting Plotmon's grave at Mount Panorama right now."

Tasuku's eyes widened. "Plotmon's grave?"

"You know it."

Blikmon's tone felt really weird, at least to Hisoka. He'd expected the tin robot to question Tasuku, but instead, it said those words just like that.

"Well, I came across the grave when I was picking some Big Berries at Mount Panorama."

Meanwhile, Guy's mouth had been wide open since the mention of the grave, yet no words had come out of it.

Blikmon looked at Guy. "Even if Digimon die without leaving dead bodies, there is a reason why one would still build a grave for a Digimon. Please ask Unimon about that."

For some reason, Hisoka felt like Blikmon could actually read one's mind.

Smiling, Guy rose to his feet. "Then I'll find Unimon."

As he picked up the backpack and wore it, Tasuku gave Guy a worried look. "You should rest, Guy. You've only had a quick nap after fighting Vritramon." Tasuku pointed at the crate. "After that, you carried that thing all the way back."

Guy's smile faded into a frown.

"I know you're always eager to learn about stuff like this, but please remember that you've got many things waiting for you tomorrow," Tasuku explained. "Don't worry. I'll tell you everything once I'm back."

"Aren't you tired too?" Guy asked. "After Mikage and I left with Arisugawa, you went to Lava Cave to get the Fireball."

"There was nothing left in the cave anyway. Not even a wild Digimon. It was really hot in there but that's all."

"How about you two visit Unimon together?" Blikmon suggested.

Guy nodded and smiled. "Sounds good." He looked at Tasuku. "What do you think, Takato?"

Tasuku took the backpack and wore it. "Then let's go." As he walked through the curtain with Guy, he told Hisoka, "We're off, Mikage. Don't fall asleep."

Hisoka growled. "I won't."

"I shall take my leave as well." Blikmon looked at Hisoka. "Well? I am certain that you are not falling asleep anytime soon. I can feel your love for Homare."

Hisoka stared at Blikmon. "You're weird and creepy."

"How so?"

"You read people so well. It's like you can read people's minds."

Blikmon only laughed softly as it flew through the curtain and left Hisoka and Homare behind.

"Weirdo," Hisoka mumbled.


	20. Unimon's Story

Going on an adventure with only Tasuku was an interesting experience, Guy would say, especially with what was happening in Winter Troupe right now. Whenever they came across Digimushrooms on the forest floor, Tasuku would pick them up and store them in the backpack, puddles and grimes be damned.

Tasuku _did_ scowl, but never had he complained about how irritating everything was. He kept going despite having his socks and the lower parts of his pants stained by splashes of muddy water.

Tasuku loved everyone in the troupe, not just Tsumugi.

The sun sunk lower and lower until it dipped down into the horizon, spreading fiery red and orange hues across the sky. The surrounding foliage gleamed in the last rays of the dying sun. Guy had often seen beautiful natural sceneries back in Zafra with Citron, but this time such a sight refreshed his mind and made him smile a bit.

He was no longer an android. Winter Troupe had taught him to live his life as what he was supposed to be: a human.

He'd do whatever he could to keep the troupe from falling apart, all while studying everything he'd missed out in his days as an "android." This let him push through the soreness that had been plaguing his body.

Amid the natural scenery of the mountain trail, he came across a broken fridge. It made him raise an eyebrow, but since Tasuku ignored it, he'd keep walking as well. Maybe it was something natural in this magical world.

A massive silhouette of a block-like object stood in the distance. Whatever it was, Guy dashed past Tasuku and continued slowly, his ears perked up. Anything could hide around or even inside that thing.

"Guy-"

Guy placed a finger before his pursed lips as he walked. His ears registered faint chatters amid the chirping birds and the rustling leaves.

The structure turned out to be a massive electric generator with peeling paints and patches of rust. Beside it a withered tree towered over a plant kid.

The withered tree reminded Guy of Halloween decoration; standing slightly taller than a grown-up man, it possessed a pair of big blue eyes on the trunk and a set of ramified roots as its feet. The four branches that protruded out of its body looked like arms; the upper ones were big stout branches with jagged edges, while the lower ones were small and shaped like human arms.

"A human?" the tree asked, scratching its head with one of the upper branches. "You sure that's not a Digimon?"

The plant kid nodded. "It was a big burly human, Woodmon! He kicked me and then grabbed my fingers and threw me away!"

"Hey!"

Tasuku's voice drew their attention. Both the tree and the plant kid stared at him.

The plant kid pointed at Tasuku. "He's here! With a friend!"

"You started it, brat!" Tasuku yelled.

Woodmon walked towards them, at which Guy bent his knees and readied his fists. This thing either lacked combat experience or never intended to fight them.

"Tell me what happened," the tree said.

Guy exited his fighting stance.

Tasuku sighed. "I was picking some Digimushrooms when that brat attacked me. I was just defending myself."

"Go hunt somewhere else!" the plant kid shouted. "This is our territory!"

"You could've told me that instead of attacking me."

"So that was how it went." Woodmon nodded. "How about this? Hand over your stuff and leave. We'll pretend that this never happened."

Tasuku hissed. "The hell?"

"Surviving is tough. We're just doing our best."

"We're trying to survive too," Guy replied calmly. "We're doing this for our injured friend, so could you let us go this time?"

"Hmm…" Woodmon rubbed the back of its head with its upper arm. Then it took a few steps back. "Foraging in our territory is still a crime, but we can make an exception. As Mamemon says, the winner takes all." It slammed the jagged edges of its upper arms against each other. "Fight me, one-on-one. You win, we'll leave you alone. You lose, we're taking all your stuff and kicking you outta here."

"Sounds fair," Tasuku said. "What do you think, Guy?"

Guy didn't respond; instead, he observed Woodmon. His fists and feet couldn't possibly scratch the Digimon's stout body and arms, but its roots looked pretty flimsy. Moreover, its eyes looked vulnerable.

Blitzmon lacked the mobility to land precise strikes on Woodmon's possible weak points, while Bolgmon's tremendous strength might end up killing the Digimon instead. Also, Woodmon looked like a Digimon with a slow, brutish fighting style.

Smiling, Guy entered his combat stance again. "I accept your challenge."

"Guy, you should evolve," Tasuku told him. "Woodmon is-"

Woodmon dashed and pulled back one of its large arms. A slow fighter, just as predicted, but Guy remained poker-faced. A sidestep, and its punch ripped through the empty air.

Electricity streamed across Guy's arm. Before Woodmon could launch another punch, Guy drove his electrically-charged fist into the Digimon's eye. The tree shrieked as its eye sizzled and burst into golden particles.

A leg sweep, and Woodmon smashed into the soggy ground.

Just as Guy hopped onto the tree trunk and prepared another electrically-charged fist for the other eye, Woodmon raised its arms. "I give up."

Guy jumped back, his fists still clenched and crackling with arcs of electricity. There was nothing wrong with being so careful; some foes might just fight dirty.

Woodmon chose not to. With a hand on its lost eye, the tree got up and approached the plant kid. "Let's leave, Alraumon." Then it walked away with the little Digimon.

"You gave up so fast," Alraumon complained as it disappeared into the palisades of trees with Woodmon. "Mamemon won't like this."

"That human is already dangerous without evolving. I don't wanna imagine fighting his evolved form."

"Uh, Guy…" Tasuku spoke from behind. "Did you choose not to evolve because you know you might kill Woodmon by accident?"

"Partly." Guy glanced over his shoulder to see a gawking Tasuku, the electric currents across his arms fading. "My other reason was Blitzmon's limited mobility. It'd be harder to dodge Woodmon's attack and go for the eye as Blitzmon."

Tasuku gave him a proud smile. "You're really good at this. You should teach everyone how to fight smartly later."

Guy returned the smile. "I will, but remember that such a thing comes mostly from experience."

"I guess we should travel together more often then." Tasuku strode past Guy and towards the electric generator. "Come on. We gotta find Unimon."

Guy nodded and followed Tasuku past the generator. Time to learn why Digimon would build graves for the deceased.

They wound up in an area surrounded by clusters of big weird flowers and orbs, bound together by a mesh of purple root-like things. As curious as Guy was, his instinct told him not to approach them.

A series of slow clip-clops and crunches echoed from the distance. The noise drew closer to them as they went further…

And it stopped. Now a winged unicorn - Unimon - stood before them, its head tilted.

"What are you doing here?" it asked. "You'd better leave before Mamemon's subordinates find you." It sounded stern, unlike that time Guy and Tsumugi talked to it.

"You mean Woodmon and Alraumon?" Tasuku asked back. "We dealt with them."

"Mamemon will find you sooner or later and challenge you to a duel. If you reject it, it'll attack you and force you into fighting it. If you lose, it'll take all your stuff and kick you outta here. That's how Mount Panorama inhabitants roll."

"Then what about you? You come here often, don't you? Mamemon won't be pleased."

Unimon gasped. Then it looked down.

Guy's mouth was ajar at how direct Tasuku was.

"Sorry," Tasuku mumbled.

Unimon finally raised its head and smiled at Tasuku. "It's fine. I guess I could use a pair of listening ears sometimes," it spoke gently. "It's quite a long story, though."

"Why don't we go back to File City before talking?" Guy asked. "We shouldn't let Mamemon find us."

"I can negotiate with it. I was an inhabitant of Mount Panorama after all."

"But you said-"

Unimon cut Guy off, "I was just trying to push you away."

"I feel like I've faced something similar a while back," Tasuku commented.

"It was about Yukishiro during _Nocturnality_ run, was it not?" Guy questioned.

"And about the time you came to Mankai too." Tasuku sighed. "He always tries to distance himself from others when he has a problem."

Unimon chuckled. "Azuma and I are similar in a way. It's never easy to talk about your past." It took a deep breath. "So, back when I stayed here, I was a close friend of Plotmon's. Not quite close actually. I always tried to push it away."

"Why?" Guy asked.

"The pain of losing someone you love hurts a lot." Unimon inhaled. "When Meramon was still alive, earthquakes and landslides happened a lot at Mount Panorama. DeathMeramon only made them worse. I was afraid that those disasters would someday kill either Plotmon or me, so I thought having some distance between us would be better."

"It was so that when either of you had to go, it wouldn't hurt so much, wasn't it?" Tasuku stroked his chin. "It's kinda similar to Azuma's reason for keeping everyone at arm's length back then."

"But those were natural disasters," Guy said. "They might kill both of you at the same time too."

"I know, but we could never tell what would happen," Unimon replied. "I regret the decision. Losing Plotmon still hurts a lot despite the distance. I..." Its voice wavered; Guy wondered if it were tearing up behind its mask. "No matter how hard I tried to forget about it, I always failed." It looked down again. “I decided to treasure the very few memories I had about Plotmon and build a grave. It gives me some closure, although at the same time, I regret not making more memories with Plotmon in the past. I have so few memories to remember Plotmon by.”

It was a matter or remembrance, huh? Smiling at Unimon, Guy nodded. "I understand now. Thanks for sharing your story."

He couldn't wait to return to File City and talk to Azuma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a bit of liberty for Mount Panorama inhabitants here. Woodmon and Plotmon don't exist in Digimon World, while I have Gotsumon planned for another region. Mamemon and Unimon do however; you can recruit them from Mount Panorama.
> 
> Now that Nano is approaching, see you all on November!


	21. Unforgettable Sorrow

Despite the nap, Azuma still ended up making a few mistakes at the shop. How could this happen? No matter how hard he tried to not think about Winter Troupe, he'd end up failing. The collection of booze on the desk would remind him of a drunk Homare crying while reciting some nonsensical poems, the row of training manuals on the little shelves would remind him of Tasuku working out…

Azuma hated how he couldn't free himself from the memories.

Maybe he shouldn't have gotten close to anyone to begin with.

Once the customer left the shop, Azuma expected Piyomon to scold him again. Yet the bird's face said otherwise; it smiled gently instead of scowling.

"Tsunomon told me about your situation," it said. "Sorry for being so harsh to you earlier."

"It's not your fault," Azuma replied with a small smile. "I shouldn't have let my feelings interfere with my work."

Piyomon shook its head. "I understand you. You're just like Unimon."

"Unimon?"

"Back when it just started working here, it made a lot of mistakes like you," Piyomon explained. "I often scolded it, and it kept apologizing to me." Its eyes watered. "Then I regretted it. I didn't know that it came to File City because it wanted to completely forget about Plotmon."

"Plotmon?"

"Its dead friend." Piyomon shrugged. "It failed anyway."

Azuma gasped. That sounded so similar to his situation right now.

Being direct was never his or Winter Troupe's forte, but maybe learning more about Unimon would alleviate his pain. "May I know how Unimon coped with grief?" he asked.

"Rather than forgetting everything, Unimon chose to cherish its memories with Plotmon."

Azuma scowled. That would hurt just as much, wouldn't it?

"This may sound silly for you, as Digimon disintegrate and leave no corpse when they die, but Unimon built a grave for Plotmon at Mount Panorama." At this, Piyomon began shedding tears. "It's so that it can easily remember Plotmon every time it visits the grave."

Azuma could only stand still and look at the weeping Piyomon. Even when he worked as a professional cuddler, this kind of stuff would always silence him. Hurt him. Make him feel pathetic for being unable to comfort his clients.

"I've never lost anyone close to me, but Unimon's story makes me scared." Piyomon wiped the tears off its eyes with its wing-like arm. "Also, Jijimon always says that all lives will end someday…" The Digimon shuddered. "It's scary."

What should Azuma say to Piyomon now? He didn't even know how to deal with the impermanence of life.

Not that he could just say, _"We'll find a way to make things last forever."_ Piyomon might be a Child Digimon, but Azuma doubted it had the innocence of a child.

"Sorry for rambling." Piyomon smiled a bit. "Well, I don't mind if you wanna take a break now. Maybe staying by your comatose friend's side will comfort you."

Azuma returned the smile; faking it was easy thanks to all the experience in acting, but anyone from Winter Troupe could probably see through it. "I'll be fine. Talking with you actually made me feel better."

"Okay."

Azuma sat on the chair behind the counter and looked at the automatic doors. How quiet. And lonely. The wind from the air conditioners got colder and colder...

Should he take a leave and visit Homare now? But merely thinking of Homare's condition made his skin crawl; the man might die anytime soon.

The shop doorbell rang. The surrounding air warmed up a bit when the automatic doors opened and Guy stepped into the shop.

"You need something, Guy?" Azuma asked.

Guy approached the counter. "Can we talk in private?"

Smiling, Azuma replied teasingly, "In private, huh?" He didn't feel like going with Guy, though.

"Unimon asked me to deliver a message for you."

Azuma's jaw dropped. What did Unimon want to tell him? Work-related message? But if it were really a work-related message, why would Unimon relay it to Guy instead of Piyomon?

"You should go," Piyomon said. "But first…" The bird strode towards the fruits section of the merch tables, picked up the plastic bag near the baskets of fruits, and shoveled red berries of various sizes into it. Then it walked back to Azuma and gave him the loaded plastic bag. "Thanks for your help, and sorry about earlier. Take these Red Berries."

"Do these help with wound healing?" Guy asked.

Piyomon nodded. "A little bit. They mostly help you regain stamina."

"Thank you. Let's go, Yukishiro."

Azuma's face sagged. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Just go," Piyomon told him. "I'll be fine. I've worked here for years."

"Please," Guy added. "You need to hear the message."

After a moment of silence and contemplation, however, Azuma finally walked out of the counter and left the shop with Guy. He'd have to face this eventually, wouldn't he? Even if he ran away, it was only a matter of time until the issue caught up with him.

Easier said than done. He still felt like retreating.

The sky had gone dark blue, with a patch of whitish yellow illumination on one side. Water puddles marred the damp asphalt road, but they didn't stop Tsunomon from bouncing around the fountain at the center of the district.

As expected, Guy was bringing him to the clinic.

"Takato and I met Unimon earlier," Guy began.

"Speaking of Tasuku, where's he?"

“He’s heading to Jijimon’s house to give the Fireball to Jijimon. He’ll be visiting Tsukioka as well.”

Azuma chuckled. "Typical of Tasuku. Anyway, please continue."

Guy nodded. "Unimon once had a friend named Plotmon."

"I've heard about that from Piyomon," Azuma responded with a sad look on his face. "Plotmon was gone, wasn't it? Unimon built a grave for it to cope with the grief."

"Yes, but it's still struggling."

"Why?"

"Because remembering Plotmon will always remind Unimon of its regret. Unimon was afraid of the pain of loss, so it maintained some distance between it and Plotmon. When Plotmon died, the distance didn't even relieve the pain."

"Because it tried to forget Plotmon but always failed, didn't it?"

"Partly. Unimon is mostly hurt because..." Guy took a deep breath. "It has so few memories to remember Plotmon by. Unimon realized it when it tried to cherish the memories instead of forgetting everything."

Azuma stopped in his tracks. His mouth was open, but no words came out of it. It was as if his brain and nerves froze for a moment.

Guy also halted. "Unimon doesn't want you to end up living a life of regret. That's all for the message."

Azuma was still at a loss.

"Yukishiro, are you scared?"

As much as he wanted to tell a lie, this time he probably wouldn't get past Guy. So he nodded, although he had to force himself to do it.

"Arisugawa often says that we're all people bound by destiny, doesn't he?" Guy smiled. "Then we'll never abandon you. And we'll follow you to kingdom come, if we must. How does that sound?"

How dramatic, but...

Azuma eventually laughed. Now this wasn't the soft laughter he'd often made; instead, it was the big one he hadn't let out for a long time.

"Thank you, Guy," he said. "I think I've got what it takes to face this." Or maybe not.

Guy nodded. "I'll always be by your side."

Chilly air greeted Azuma when he and Guy stepped into the clinic. Behind the counter in the distance, Agumon waved a hand at them.

"Hey, welcome back!" the little dinosaur exclaimed. "Your friend is having dinner!"

"Dinner?" Eyes widening in disbelief, Azuma rushed through the blue curtain beside him. This was too good to be true.

And he was right. Homare was still lying on the bed with his eye closed. Beside him Kentarumon stood, removing a dirty syringe from his feeding tube. To think that Homare would end up like this… What a painful sight.

On the other side of the bed Hisoka sat on a chair, eyeing Kentarumon's movements like a curious cat.

After plugging the feeding tube and putting it down, the centaur looked at the wall clock; it was 5:30PM now. "I'll give him some food and his next dose of medicine around six hours later."

"Thanks, Kentarumon," Hisoka said. Then he looked at Azuma. "You're back."

Kentarumon shifted its gaze to him as well. "Oh, welcome back. Your friend is doing fine. He won't be up for some time, though."

Of course Homare wouldn't, but Azuma hoped that he would.

"Thanks for taking care of him," Azuma told Kentarumon, who then galloped out of the area with the dirty syringe in its hand.

Azuma approached the bed, his hands going cold, his legs getting unsteady. No, in no way he could ever see this without feeling uncomfortable. And he wanted to leave again.

"You don't look well, Azuma," Hisoka said.

There really was no escape from his troupe mates. Yet his instinct told him to speak the truth instead of lying. Maybe because it was Hisoka, a man who had lost someone dear to him, a man who had chosen to live on without forgetting about his dark past.

Azuma pulled a chair towards the bed and sat down. "How does it feel to live on with painful memories?"

"It hurts," Hisoka replied, "but I can never throw them away no matter how hard I try. That's when I learn that all memories, good or bad, are equally precious."

"What makes them precious?"

"Because my family is there in my memories. August will live on in me as long as I don't throw them away." Tears glistened in Hisoka's visible eye. "That's why I wanna make a lot of memories with everyone. When everyone must go, everyone will never die...as long as I remember."

"As long as you remember…"

Something flashed across Azuma's mind. That hair comb. The birthday gift Hajime could never give to him because he passed away a week before the D-day. Whenever Azuma held onto it, he'd always feel like his brother was watching over him.

Hajime would live forever in his heart as long as he remembered. Bless that hair comb for helping him remember. Bless Tasuku for finding it before his family house was demolished.

"I understand." Azuma looked at the comatose Homare. The sight stung him less now; maybe the pain would completely go away if he made a lot of memories with Winter Troupe.

Maybe, just maybe, it'd also let him get closer to everyone without the fear of getting left behind.

Then a light bulb went off in his head. "What do you think if we all sleep here tonight?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is inspired a lot by Risky Game, Hotel Compass, and from a non-A3! source, Final Fantasy IX. I'm a softie for its central theme, and what's more, it pretty much screams Hisoka and Azuma.
> 
> Anyway, did you catch the references to FFIX? ;)


	22. Trust in Others

The bed Tsumugi was lying on just had the right amount of firmness to warrant a good sleep. With his body feeling so sore and a blanket shielding him from the chilling air, he could keep on sleeping…

Then he remembered the state Winter Troupe was currently in. Homare was severely injured and comatose, which might cause Azuma to reconstruct the invisible barrier they'd once broken.

Tsumugi's eyes snapped open, and he looked around. Yeah, he was back at Jijimon's house. The fuzzy figure of a penguin plush on one of the empty beds across the room said it all.

Then his gaze, still a bit blurred, moved to the muscular humanoid figure. A bulky backpack leaned against the stool he sat on.

"You're finally up."

"Tasuku?" Tsumugi stirred and groaned at the dull ache that plagued his body. Damn, his physical fitness was worse than he'd ever thought. It hurt to even sit up.

Compared to earlier, though, he could already get up at least.

"You don't look well," Tasuku added.

"Ah, I'm just feeling a bit sore." Tsumugi got out of the bed and put on his sandals. Standing up was no big deal, but walking hurt him so much that he had to take it slow.

"Don't push yourself. Your body is still recovering."

"I'm not hurt."

"You are."

Shuffling towards the bedroom's door, Tsumugi growled. "I'm not."

Tasuku sighed. "Then let's head to the clinic. Everyone should be there."

"Everyone?" Tsumugi stopped in his tracks and glanced over his shoulder; Tasuku had stood up and worn the backpack. "Even Azuma too?"

"Guy planned to talk to him and bring him to the clinic."

"Guy…" Tsumugi frowned, his gaze falling to the wooden floorboards. Would Guy succeed with his limited understanding of human emotion? Doubtful. Yet Tsumugi, as the leader of Winter Troupe, felt guilty for not putting more trust in his troupe mates.

"You should depend more on others. Everyone's working hard and trying their best." Tasuku placed a hand on Tsumugi's shoulder. "I still remember how confident Guy looked after hearing Unimon's story. He should be able to talk to Azuma."

Hmm, maybe it wouldn't hurt to leave things to Guy. If things didn't go well, Tsumugi could always jump in, couldn't he?

Just as he grabbed the doorknob, a few knocks came from behind the door. He opened it and found Monzaemon standing before him with a glass of thick, fibrous brownish red liquid.

"Oh, you're up, Tsumugi." The bear plushie smiled as it gave the glass to Tsumugi. "I made this for you."

"Uh, thanks?" Tsumugi smiled back. Weird. According to Tasuku, Monzaemon never talked to strangers. Then again, this Digital World was different from what they knew.

"What's that...thing?" Tasuku asked.

"This juice is made from Red Berries, Super Carrots, and Hawk Radishes."

Tsumugi could feel acid crawling up his throat, but it'd be rude to not appreciate Monzaemon's kindness.

Tasuku's face contorted in disgust. "I know those stuff are good for your health, but juicing them altogether is just gross."

"It doesn't taste as bad as it seems," Monzaemon replied.

Bringing the glass closer to him, Tsumugi detected a mixture of sweet, fruity, and earthy scents from the juice. Then he chugged it down. Somehow it tasted just like ordinary fruit juice, albeit very sweet. Not that it bothered him much; after all, he sometimes put one too many spoonfuls of sugar into his coffee.

By the time he emptied the glass and returned it to Monzaemon, his body no longer hurt that much, which brought a broad smile upon his face. He still felt like lying on a comfy bed to get rid of the minor aches here and there, but the troupe needed him now.

"This is more effective than Kentarumon's medicines!" Tasuku exclaimed.

Tsumugi nodded. "Right! This is great!"

"Not really. Red Berries relieve your fatigue, but Super Carrots and Hawk Radishes don't. Those veggies only energize you, so they're best consumed when you need that one push to get your job done," Monzaemon explained. "You may also consider having some if you want to work out at Green Gym for an extended period of time, but be careful. Once the effect wears off, if you overwork yourself, you'll feel very sore and may even pass out."

"Work out, huh?" Tasuku gave Tsumugi a mischievous grin. It sent chills down Tsumugi's spine.

"Spirit Evolution is like going through strenuous physical activity. The pain and fatigue are even worse if you've just fought and gotten injured in that form. You all should condition your body for that."

Tsumugi was never a morning person, but Monzaemon's explanation alone made him want to break that bad habit of his. In Digital World, it was no longer a matter of proficiency in acting; rather, it was now a matter of physical fitness.

He'd never reach Tasuku's and Guy's level, but as a leader, he should never be this weak.

"Tasuku," Tsumugi began, his face hardening with fierce determination, "help me train. Help me get stronger."

"Again?" Tasuku sighed. "Do I need to remind you that you oversleep a lot and always drop your training halfway through?"

"I'm serious!"

Tasuku said nothing afterwards. He just stood there, looking at Tsumugi with widened eyes and a gaping mouth.

"This is like that time I decided to give acting another shot, but rather than a matter of passion, I want to get stronger because…" Tsumugi clenched his fists. "I'm the leader. I'm supposed to protect, not getting protected."

Tasuku remained silent. Then his shocked face transformed into a sad one. "Having played so many prince roles at God Troupe and studying a lot about royalties, let me tell you this: even if a king fights alongside his army, his primary role is to boost the morale of his troops. The king is always heavily protected because if he dies, his army will fall apart."

"The king gotta know how to fight too," Tsumugi argued back.

"It won't stop his army from protecting him." Tasuku smiled. "Well, I'll gladly help you train, but remember. Whatever you do, nothing will stop us from protecting you. Whether you're strong or weak, we'll always need you."

Tasuku's words would never stop Tsumugi from wanting to be stronger. Even if everyone in Winter Troupe preferred seeing themselves as some expendable soldiers, Tsumugi would _never_ let them sacrifice themselves for him. All lives in the troupe were valuable.

He wouldn't argue back, though. Both him and Tasuku were stubborn as a mule; if they ever found themselves in a heated discussion about acting, it could go on for hours. Only when something else interrupted them or occasionally, one of them relented, would the argument finally stop.

"Guess I'll take my leave." Monzaemon turned around. As it descended the staircase in front of it, it added, "Don't push yourself too hard, Tsumugi. Your existence alone is very important for Winter Troupe."

"Like a king," Tasuku continued. "Anyway, let's move."

"Yes."

Tsumugi walked down the staircase, with a hand on the railing. If not for Monzaemon's drink, he'd be shaking as he moved and clinging to the railing as if it were his lifeline; convincing himself that he had to be strong for everyone probably wouldn't help him much. Also, Tasuku would end up carrying him all the way to the clinic at the end.

The living room had nobody other than Blikmon, who stood still beside the TV. Its winding key wasn't moving, but Tsumugi said goodbye to it anyway. It was impolite to simply leave the house.

Blikmon's winding key spun at that, and the gears within its chest whirred and ground against each other. Then everything stopped moving again. Maybe it was its way of saying, _"Okay."_

Outside, the dark blue sky made Tsumugi wonder, for how long had he been asleep? He could even see the moon glowing faintly up there.

"Look out, Tsumu-"

Splash!

Tsumugi's foot now felt cold, wet, and a bit scratchy. He stopped, looked down, and then resumed his walk, ignoring Tasuku's sigh from behind him. Stepping on a puddle of muddy water? His foot only got dirty, no biggie.

The business district at dusk was a sight to behold. Lights of various sizes, shapes, and colors on the surrounding buildings had lit up, while the asphalt road had a few small lights on the surface. Tsumugi would stay away from them, though, especially with a drenched foot.

From the fountain, which was now glowing white with all the underwater lights, Tsunomon bounced towards them. "File City is really bright at night, isn't it? Elecmon set up all the lights!"

"Elecmon, huh?" Tasuku stroked his chin. "I wonder how it can manage so many lights at once."

"It builds an electric generator at the outskirts of the town. Heard it works in shifts with a few friends to watch over the generator."

"I see."

This Digital World sure had many differences from the one in _Digimon World_ , Tsumugi thought. Elecmon usually hung out near the item shop, and how it lit up all the lights in the town was up to the players' imagination.

"By the way, your friends are all staying at the clinic," Tsunomon said. "The injured one isn't up yet, but everyone looks happier than before. I think that brown-haired one has something to do with it."

Tsumugi froze up in shock and disbelief. Then slowly, the shocked expression faded and was replaced with a delighted one. Guy, a man who didn't really understand human emotion, really succeeded at talking to Azuma.

"That's good to hear!" Tsumugi finally said.

Tasuku gave Tsumugi a friendly smack on the back. "See? Have more faith in your troupe members."

"Yeah!" Tsumugi rushed to the clinic. All that was left was to see the happiness with his own eyes.

As soon as he entered the building, he heard familiar laughter from behind the blue curtain. He walked through it, and Guy, Azuma, and Hisoka greeted him with a bright smile. Homare was still lying on the bed, though, with his eye closed.

"Welcome back, leader," Azuma said. "We're discussing an exciting idea."

Hisoka nodded. "Let's sleep here tonight. Together with everyone."


	23. Sleepover Preparation

Hisoka loved Azuma's idea of sleeping together in the clinic. It wasn't because of how refreshing the air was, although it reeked of disinfectant; Hisoka could sleep anywhere, anytime whenever he felt like sleeping. Rather, it was because he could imagine how happy Homare would be, to see everyone around him as soon as he regained his consciousness.

Homare might not be up yet tonight, but there was nothing wrong with hoping and trying, was there?

Tsumugi had approved the idea as well. It'd help Winter Troupe bond, he had said.

Sitting at the desk beside Homare's bed, Hisoka slowly ate the stir-fried ramen everyone had bought from the restaurant. How thoughtful of them, to have included no meat in the food. Tasuku had lectured him about the nutritional value of meat, though, which Hisoka hadn't really listened to.

Whenever Hisoka put some of the food - especially the shredded carrots - in his mouth, his heart would always clench, and he'd then look at the comatose Homare. Poor thing had been consuming nothing but liquid food given through his feeding tube. To think that someone who had lived a life of luxury since birth had to go through this… How sad.

A moment later, the frowning Hisoka closed his box of half-eaten ramen and pushed it aside. No food, not even marshmallows, would taste good as long as he had a lump in his throat and an aching chest.

Azuma, who sat on the stool on the other side of Homare's bed, noticed it. "Hisoka?"

"It tastes bland," Hisoka replied.

"Bland, huh? Would you like me to get some spices?"

Hisoka looked at Azuma, who was smiling gently at him. Knowing Azuma, who could read people very well like Tsumugi, Hisoka believed the silver-haired man was trying to console him while giving him some space. He appreciated that.

He smiled back at Azuma. "It's okay. I never eat much anyway."

"I see."

Neither Hisoka nor Azuma talked afterwards.

Without Homare, Winter Troupe seemed to lose its life; if one were to write amid the silence, the scraping of the pen against the paper would sound so loud. That Tsumugi, Tasuku, and Guy left the clinic to find a mattress only made it deader than it had ever been.

Never had Hisoka missed Homare's hullabaloos so much, be it reciting poems, complaining about writer's block, claiming how intelligent and magnificent he was, and much more.

"Arisu…" Hisoka held Homare's hand. It still felt pretty cold, which prompted him to squeeze it; Kentarumon did suggest Hisoka to not really warm Homare up for the time being, but Hisoka just couldn't help it. "It's so weird and sad to see you this quiet."

It'd be a miracle if Homare answered him in this state.

"You're talking to him again?" Azuma asked. "I heard that comatose people can actually hear you."

"Tsumugi said that too. But even if that's not true, I'll keep talking to Arisu. It feels good." Hisoka released Homare's hand. "Wanna try?"

"Sure. I wonder what I should say, though."

"I usually like reminiscing with him, but sometimes I just say whatever is in my mind."

"Reminiscing, huh?" Azuma nodded and looked at Homare. "Remember that time we play as husband and wife in _Die by the Sword_? We practiced that proposal scene a lot during our spare time."

Like usual, Homare didn't respond.

"You were very natural," Azuma continued. "I feel like you'll make a devoted husband who's willing to sacrifice everything for his wife."

Homare would go to great lengths for his loved ones; Hisoka knew that all too well. It often made Hisoka wonder why Homare's lover ditched him just like that.

Heavy footfalls echoed.

Hisoka and Azuma turned. Tasuku and Guy strode through the curtain, bringing with them a gigantic mattress. Beside them Tsumugi walked with a thick blanket and Pen Pen in his hands.

Tsumugi approached Hisoka with a smile. "You left him at Jijimon's House."

"Thanks, Tsumugi." Hisoka picked up the penguin plush and hugged it tightly while brushing his face against its soft fur. Pen Pen smelled sweet, just like the flowers Tsumugi grew in the courtyard of Mankai dorm.

Tasuku and Guy put the mattress down on the floor. Now, to reach the curtain and exit the area, one had to walk along the small path between the mattress and the wall.

Tasuku wiped the sweat off his temple. "Whew, what a nice workout in the evening. Let's talk about how we should sleep as we wait for Blikmon and Monzaemon to bring the pillows here."

"Only four people can fit in," Guy said. "One of us will have to sleep on the bench outside this area."

Hisoka wouldn't want that. He'd be so far from Homare.

Laying the blanket across the mattress, Tsumugi grinned. "Anyone who can't stand cold should sleep beside Tasuku. His body is always so warm."

Tasuku hissed. "Shut it, Tsumugi!"

"Is that so?" Azuma chuckled. "Then I'd love to. My body temperature is pretty low."

Tasuku sighed. "Ugh, whatever." Then he stared at Tsumugi. "This is your fault."

Tsumugi rubbed the back of his neck, smirking. "It rained today, Tasuku. It'll get colder at night." He looked at the lone air conditioner in the area. "The AC is also blowing directly at us."

"We can just switch it off," Tasuku grumbled.

"You mustn't," Hisoka cut in. "Kentarumon told me that we should keep Arisu cool for some time to reduce the brain damage."

"Seriously?" Tasuku blinked. "I always think otherwise."

"Since Digital World operates differently from the real world and Kentarumon is the expert here, let's just trust it," Tsumugi said. "Speaking of, who should be sleeping on the bench? I don't mind sleeping there by the way."

"After what you've gone through today?" Tasuku raised his voice. "I won't let you do that!"

"Sleeping on the bench is also bad for your health. You'll wake up with back pains and might catch a cold," Guy added. "Since you're accompanying me to Beetle Land tomorrow, you shouldn't either, Takato."

"If you say so, that leaves us with…" Tasuku looked at Hisoka. "Mikage."

"I said I wouldn't mind sleeping on the bench," Tsumugi reiterated. "I'm not going to Beetle Land after all."

"I don't wanna sleep on the mattress," Hisoka said. "I don't wanna sleep on the bench either. I'll sleep…" He paused. "I'll sleep beside Arisu. I'm small enough to fit in his bed."

"The hell? You'll aggravate his wounds!" Tasuku snapped.

"I know. I'll be careful."

"I'm carrying you back down if you sleep beside him!"

"Shut up."

"Hey, Hisoka's element is Ice, right?" Tsumugi chimed in. "Since Kentarumon said something about keeping Homare cool, it's a good idea actually."

"But Arisugawa's wounds-"

"I said I'll be careful, Tasuku," Hisoka interrupted.

"But-"

"I trust you, Hisoka," Tsumugi said with a smile. "If something goes wrong, just tell us. We're all here."

Hisoka nodded. "Got it."

"Tsumugi, you…" Tasuku stopped right there. Seeing him at a loss for words and look at someone with a gaping mouth never failed to make Hisoka smile. Azuma seemed to feel the same way.

A series of light footsteps from behind the curtain broke the silence. Monzaemon stepped into the area with three pillows in its hands. Soon, Blikmon flew in with three more pillows.

As the Digimon put them down on the mattress, Tsumugi said, "Thanks."

"Have fun, I guess." Then Blikmon flew out of the area.

Blikmon sounded a bit nonchalant, Hisoka would say. For some reason, though, he felt that the tin robot actually cared.

As Monzaemon followed Blikmon through the curtain, it said, "You guys are really close, aren't you? Well, keep it up. You need teamwork to get all the items and go back home."

Tsumugi nodded. "We know. We're people bound by destiny."

"That's what Homare said." Azuma chuckled, sitting down on the mattress and taking a pillow from the heap formed by Monzaemon and Blikmon. "Well, then, shall we sleep now?"

"How about we talk for a bit before sleeping?" Tsumugi suggested.

Whatever they wanted to do, Hisoka took off his shoes and got on Homare's bed. Slowly and carefully, he slipped Pen Pen and his body into the thin blanket that covered Homare and wrapped his arms around the penguin plush and the comatose man. The coldness of Homare’s skin and the faint stench of burnt flesh made Hisoka wince, but Kentarumon told him to keep Homare cool, so...

"Arisu, get well soon."

Chilly air seeped out of Hisoka's body as darkness enveloped him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got some inspiration from Hotel Compass and Midsummer Azuma backstage. In Hotel Compass, Tsumugi said that Tasuku was always so warm, while in Midsummer Azuma backstage, Azuma said that his body temp was always low. See something there?
> 
> Also, an interesting fact about cooling after cardiac arrest: therapeutic hypothermia. Research says that it reduces the brain damage caused by the cardiac arrest.


	24. Late Night Talk

When Tasuku saw Hisoka climbing onto Homare's bed, he really felt like dragging him out of the bed ASAP; one wrong move, Hisoka might pull off those life support devices or further break Homare's ribs by accident. However, Tsumugi's _"I trust you, Hisoka''_ replayed in his head.

As someone who really wanted Tsumugi to depend more on his troupe members, Tasuku thought he'd better keep quiet and only jump in when things went wrong.

Lying on the mattress, sandwiched between Azuma and Tsumugi, Tasuku kept scrutinizing the bed. Merely looking at the sleeping Hisoka made his heart race.

"Tasuku?" Tsumugi asked.

Tasuku finally looked away. "It's nothing."

Tsumugi smiled at him. "They'll be fine."

Tasuku nodded, his heart still pounding.

"Now, now, why don't we talk about something else?" Azuma suggested. "It might help you relax."

"Right," Tsumugi replied. "Winter Troupe rarely sleeps together, so we'd better use this opportunity to talk a lot and get closer."

"It'll just be between the three of us tonight." Azuma pointed at the sleeping Guy with a thumb. "He fell asleep as soon as he lay down."

"Can't blame him. He worked really hard today. And he gotta be ready for tomorrow too," Tasuku said.

"Does the Beetle Tournament take place right after the registration closes?" Tsumugi asked.

"Nah, it starts a day after that. The thing is, the opponent in the final will always be HerakleKabuterimon, an Ultimate Digimon. Even in our Beast Form, we're just about as strong as a Perfect Digimon."

"That sounds rough."

"Yeah."

As silence came upon the area, Tasuku racked his brain for a way to help Guy prepare for the tournament. For starters, they had to depart very early to reach Beetle Land in time. Their journey consisted of both land and water routes; Seadramon at Dragon Eye Lake would cover the latter.

A light bulb went off in Tasuku's head. His Beast Form, KaiserLeomon, was a big metallic lion; if he knew how to control that form, Guy could just ride him all the way to Dragon Eye Lake.

"Aren't we supposed to talk?"

Azuma's soft voice jarred Tasuku out of his reverie.

"Right. Guess we can talk about…" Tsumugi scratched his head. "We've talked about love life a while back, so let's think of something else."

"How about our fondest memories?" Azuma suggested.

"Are you okay with that?" Tasuku blurted out, his eyes widening in shock and worry. Beside him, Tsumugi gawked at Azuma.

"I've come to accept that I can never forget my past no matter how hard I try," Azuma replied, "so I thought it'd be better to treat it as a good thing rather than a nuisance."

Tasuku didn't even know what to do. Maybe he should encourage Azuma. Or maybe not; he doubted Azuma could handle the pain of reminiscing right now.

A moment later, Tsumugi finally said, "I guess talking about your fondest memories can be a good start, but if it hurts you too much, let's just change the topic."

 _"Or you could just cry your heart out,"_ Tasuku wanted to say, but he couldn't even open his mouth.

Azuma chuckled. "I'll be fine. Listening to Unimon's story and talking to Hisoka taught me something important."

"Oh, right. I don't really know about Unimon's story," Tsumugi commented. "Mind telling us about it, Azuma?"

"Unimon used to live with Plotmon at Mount Panorama, but one day, Plotmon died. It hurt Unimon so much that it moved to File City, hoping to completely forget about Plotmon." Azuma's expression darkened. "It failed."

"Apparently, Unimon could never forget about Plotmon," Tasuku continued. "Unimon finally decided to cherish the very few memories it had about its dead friend, but it still hurt it."

"Painful memories will always hurt you no matter what," Tsumugi commented with a sad look in his face.

"No. What hurt Unimon the most is that it has so few memories to remember Plotmon by," Tasuku replied with a frown. "Unimon had always been keeping a distance with Plotmon. As a result, Unimon didn't make many memories with Plotmon when it was still alive."

"That's why I've decided to cherish all my memories, good or bad." Tears welled in Azuma's eyes. "With that said, may I start first?"

This wouldn't go well, Tasuku thought, but then he gave Azuma an encouraging smile. "Go ahead." He'd better prepare himself to offer Azuma a shoulder to cry on.

"I've always loved coloring," Azuma began. "My parents used to buy me a lot of coloring books. I'd then…" He started sobbing, at which Tasuku hugged him out of reflex. "Thanks, Tasuku. I thought I could finally handle the pain of cherishing my memories with my family, but turned out that I still couldn't."

"No need to force yourself." Tasuku wiped the tears off Azuma's eyes with his sleeves. "We all understand."

"Just take it slow," Tsumugi told Azuma.

Despite the overflowing tears in his eyes, Azuma forced himself to smile. "Thanks, everyone. I'm sorry that I have to end it right there."

"No need to apologize. At least you're making some progress," Tsumugi responded. "How about we change the topic? We could talk about something happier."

"I like how that sounds," Azuma replied. "I remember a lot of cute stories in Mankai and Winter Troupe."

Tasuku couldn't help but feel chills running down his spine whenever Azuma said the word "cute," but it seemed like talking about these "cute" stories would make Azuma happy… Well, okay.

"Let's talk about that then," Tasuku said.

Azuma nodded. "Before Guy joined us, I often played a game of cards with everyone else in Mankai and set up this rule: the winner gets to give an order to the losers." He chuckled. "It was fun."

"Yeah, you wiped the floor with everyone and then asked them to sleep with you. You even got Hyodo and Settsu to sleep together in your room. I was like, how? Those two always fight like cats and dogs."

"I have my own ways of _disciplining_ them. Would you like to know the details?"

As expected, talking about these stuff with Azuma would go this way, and Tasuku could only sigh. Azuma's mischievous smirk kinda delighted him, though.

Azuma yawned. "I guess it's time to sleep. It's been fun." Closing his eyes, he wrapped his arms tightly around Tasuku. "You're so warm, Tasuku."

Tasuku's face flushed when he realized that he'd been hugging Azuma throughout the talk. His embrace wavered, but then Azuma muttered, "My brother used to hug me like this. He kept me warm until I fell asleep."

Tasuku tightened his grip around Azuma again.

"Thank you."

Silence returned to the area as Tasuku waited for Azuma to fall asleep. Hajime sounded like a nice big brother... Well, not that Fuyuki never did this to him, but that guy was hella noisy. He and Homare would get along well, but Tasuku wouldn't want to imagine the chaos they'd cause.

A moment later, Azuma's grasp around him loosened. Noticing the steady rising and falling of his chest, Tasuku slowly released Azuma and backed away. "Good night," he whispered.

"You sure sound like a big brother there."

Tasuku gasped and whirled. Then he scowled at Tsumugi, whose face and eyes still looked so bright. His best friend had better retain this energy in the morning, which Tasuku doubted as it might come from drinking Monzaemon's concoction earlier.

"Go to sleep, Tsumu," Tasuku grumbled.

"You too, Tachan."

"Ugh." Tasuku should've expected that comeback when he called Tsumugi by his childhood nickname.

Once again, silence returned to the area. It made the tender echo of sleeping breaths and the whirring of the air conditioner louder than they were supposed to be.

"Hey," Tsumugi finally began, his face sagging in concern, "since we've been here for a day, what do you think about everyone in the dorm? They must be very worried."

Damn, Tasuku had almost forgotten about that.

"According to the series' lore, you can be in Digital World for months, but when you return, the time in the real world never moves. I'm not sure if it applies here, but I really hope it does." Tasuku gave Homare's bed a wistful gaze. "I don't think it's a good idea if we get outta here too fast. He's alive thanks to the nature of data."

"And he'll recover faster here. I can't imagine…" Tsumugi's voice wavered as his lips quivered.

"Tsumugi?"

Tsumugi looked at Azuma and then smiled at Tasuku. "Ah, it's nothing."

Yeah, not buying it. Tasuku had noticed how Tsumugi had to force his facial muscles to form that smile.

"It's gotta be something, Tsumugi," Tasuku said.

Tsumugi frowned. "Not now, okay? I don't wanna-"

A groan from Homare's bed interrupted him.

"Arisu?" Hisoka asked. "Arisu, you're up?"

"What?" Tasuku and Tsumugi exclaimed in unison. In a flash, they got up and rushed to Homare's bed, paying no attention to the coldness that bit their bare soles.

Homare lay still, his eye half-open, his breathing shallow and fast. The emptiness of his gaze made Tasuku grimace.

"Arisu?" Hisoka waved a hand in front of Homare's face, but Homare remained still.

"Arisugawa, you hear us?" Tasuku asked. Homare responded with nothing, which twisted the invisible knife that was already stuck in Tasuku's heart.

Tsumugi dashed away from the bed and through the curtain. "I'll call Kentarumon."

"Arisu…" Hisoka teared up as he caressed Homare's face. "Please say something."

Homare only moaned before closing his eye.

"He's responding to you at least," Tasuku commented. At this, he believed he should tell Homare some kind words, but his brain couldn't think of anything good.

A set of rapid clip-clops interrupted his train of thoughts. Tasuku turned to see Kentarumon galloping towards the bed, with Tsumugi running after it.

"Kentarumon, can you explain what's happening?" Tasuku asked. "He was up earlier and now he's...sleeping again?"

"Hmm…" Kentarumon bent over, at which Hisoka moved aside. After placing its hands on Homare's shoulders, the centaur shook the man gently and called out, "Hey, Mr. Arisugawa, you hear me?"

Homare groaned as his eye fluttered open.

"He hears you," Tasuku commented.

Kentarumon released Homare and pulled away. "Yeah, he's not quite up yet, but his condition is improving. Give him some time."

Tasuku, Hisoka, and Tsumugi let out a sigh of relief.

Hisoka crept closer to Homare and ran his fingers through Homare's unruly hair. "Arisu, read some poems when you're really up, okay?"

"We'll be waiting," Tasuku added with a smile, despite knowing that he'd never understand Homare's poems. When Homare finally woke up and recited those, though, Tasuku had better learn to suppress the urge to brush him off.

Homare closed his eye again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JP - Dub names
> 
> HerakleKabuterimon - HerculesKabuterimon  
> KaiserLeomon - JagerLowemon  
> Ultimate - Mega


	25. Doubts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took longer than expected somehow. This was because I kept wondering whether this should be in Guy's or Tasuku's limited 3rd person POV, to the point that I actually almost rewrote the whole chapter. Also, it actually strayed so far from what I originally "planned." Yeah, "planned" because I've always been a plantser and didn't really get to plan a lot for Nano beyond chapter 21. It's biting back at me because I can feel that I'm kinda running out of steam.

If Guy had the chance, he'd love to work at Digitamamon's restaurant; since their first dine-in yesterday, the dishes had drawn his attention. Sure, all the food resembled the ones in the real world, but eating them invigorated him so much that last night, he had enough strength to carry the big mattress all the way to the clinic despite feeling rather sore.

Learning to cook them would help Winter Troupe save "money" here; with their breakfast costing three Happy Mushrooms per set, their savings would vanish in less than a week. If Guy could, he'd like to refine the dishes so that the energizing effects would last longer, or the adverse effects would be milder. Guy still remembered how he, as soon as he plopped down on the mattress, fell asleep and slept like a log until morning. The energy boost left him just like that and reduced him to a powerless husk.

He'd missed a very important occasion as a result.

"Arisugawa woke up last night?" Guy asked.

Tasuku nodded. "He wasn't quite up yet, though. He only opened his eye and groaned when he heard our voice."

The corners of Guy's lips took a downturn as his gaze fell to the shiny surface of the fiberglass table. He'd caused that, hadn't he? Had he calmed Homare down with his words instead of brute strength, Homare wouldn't have fallen into a coma and sustained broken ribs. Homare would've been composing and reciting poems as he lay on the bed waiting for his leg and his eye to heal.

For a moment, Guy could only hear soft snores from Tsumugi, who dozed off with an open mouth on the chair beside Tasuku. Then Guy's nose sensed the fragrance of eggs and fresh vegetables from the distance. Bakumon, a tapir Digimon with wispy clouds as its legs, flew towards them with a tray full of foodstuffs in its hands.

"Three portions of egg salad coming up!" Bakumon moved the bowls of egg salad, glasses of water, and sets of cutlery to the table. "Enjoy!" Then it flew away with the tray.

Tasuku shook Tsumugi lightly. "Oi, wake up!"

Tsumugi opened his eyes and looked around frantically. "Uh, wha-" When his gaze landed on the bowl of egg salad, he smiled a bit. "Oh, right."

Tasuku sighed. "You never change."

Everyone had their breakfast in silence, with a long face. Guy was supposed to analyze the food, paring down the spices and whatnot, but he ended up staring at Tsumugi and Tasuku as he ate. Something felt off and he wanted to resolve it, but how could he resolve something he didn't really have any info about? Not that he could just ask directly.

No. Guy had to make a move this time. Not confronting a problem and letting it slowly eat away at everyone had always been a common issue of Winter Troupe, or so Tsumugi said.

After finishing his meal, Guy began, "Anything I can help you with?"

Tasuku blinked. "Huh? Any problem here?"

"Maybe it's that we were all so quiet when eating," Tsumugi said. "It's still early in the morning, Guy. There's only the three of us too."

"It wasn't that noisy last night either," Tasuku added. "Winter Troupe is really quiet without Arisugawa."

It made sense, but Guy couldn't shake off how dreary the atmosphere was. Nobody looked this somber last night.

Done with their breakfast, they rose from their seats. As they walked out of the restaurant, with Tasuku carrying their backpack, Bakumon shouted from behind the counter, "Come again!"

Outside, radiant shades of pink and orange slowly bled into the dark blue and purple of the twilight sky. The air warmed up as the sun slowly showed itself in the horizon, its light glinting off the metallic patches on walls of the nearby buildings. A nice morning, Guy thought, although the air in this forest of concrete felt rather stifling.

They headed out of the business district and followed the straightforward path in front of Jijimon's house. Earthy scent wafted in the air as the surrounding foliage swayed and rustled in the morning breeze. A nice change of scenery, Guy would say.

It took a few minutes for them to reach Green Gym by foot. They could've taken a shortcut through Native Forest, but Tasuku had told them to not risk it; at this time of the day, the poisonous Dokunemon roamed the forest.

A pink fuzzball stood beside the open gate of the gym. It grinned at them, showing off its little fangs. "Good morning, humans! I'm Koromon, the one in-charge of this gym."

Tsumugi smiled and waved a hand at the Digimon. "Morning."

Normally, Guy would ask about the entry fee, but Tasuku had told him that anyone could access the gym for free. It made Guy wonder how Koromon, a limbless Digimon, maintained it. Moreover, as an open area, wouldn't the gym have its training devices drenched by rainwater sometimes?

"Any training recs?" Tasuku asked. "What do Digimon usually do for training?"

Koromon nodded. "Everyone usually runs a few laps around the running track as a warm-up. Then they'll spend an hour or two on other facilities, but some choose to keep running. Jijimon prefers meditating beside the waterfall, though, without warm-ups and whatnot."

"Meditating…" Tasuku muttered. Then he walked past the gate without saying anything.

"Takato?" Guy followed Tasuku, his eyebrow raised as he wondered why Tasuku seemed to pay more attention to meditating than running.

Tsumugi walked quietly beside him, giving Tasuku a worried gaze.

Green Gym looked more like a park than a gym, at least in Guy's eyes. Big trees stood everywhere on the grassy ground, towering over the very few training devices the gym had. Guy saw no birds around, but somehow he could hear their chirps.

As much as Guy wanted to observe the punching bags and the machines with gigantic punching gloves for a bit, his instincts told him not to. Something was wrong with Tasuku; it became even more evident when the muscular man walked past the running track without batting an eye.

In the distance, amid the lush, craggy hills rested a few white streaks that could only be the waterfall Koromon mentioned. Amazing how a waterfall could be both tranquil and violent. The rumbling of the cascading torrents of water was deafening and at the same time, steady. The plunge pool, clean and clear, glittered under the morning sun as it gave off a fresh, earthy odor.

Tasuku, still quiet and long-faced, stopped before the waterfall and scanned it from top to bottom.

"Is there anything wrong?" Guy asked.

From beside Guy, Tsumugi said, "You aren't acting like yourself, Tasuku."

It took a moment for Tasuku to finally say, "Do you think meditation can help me control my Beast Form?"

Tsumugi gasped, while Guy only quirked an eyebrow.

"Do you need to evolve into your Beast Form?" Guy inquired. "The one who will fight in the Beetle Tournament is me, not you."

"Well, we can't rely on Human Form forever," Tasuku replied, unaware of Tsumugi's stare.

"I don't think that's your real reason, Tasuku." Tsumugi folded his arms over his chest. "At times like this, you should be more honest with your feelings."

Guy remained poker-faced. Tsumugi being surprisingly aggressive wasn't something new; as he had said, one had to push hard to get through Tasuku.

Tasuku looked down. "Sorry. Actually, I've been thinking about how to help Guy prepare for the tournament since last night."

"What does your Beast Form have to do with that?" Guy asked.

"KaiserLeomon is a big metallic lion. It's good for transportation purposes." Tasuku looked at Guy. "But I'm not sure if I can control the form. I'm sure as hell that my mind isn't as calm as yours."

"I understand now." A gentle smile crept into Tsumugi's face. "From what I know, the benefits of meditation don't show immediately."

"Do you meditate, Tsukioka?" Guy asked.

Tsumugi laughed softly and rubbed the back of his neck. "No. I just read articles about it."

"Right, Tsumugi being a psychology major should know a thing or two," Tasuku said with a frown. "If meditation doesn't work, then what should we do?"

"Hmm…" Tsumugi stroked his chin. "Guy, could you explain how you learned to control your Beast Form?"

Guy nodded, a wave of emotions almost pouring into his face as he recalled what happened in Lava Cave. Bolgmon's gigantic cannon arm had slammed into Vritramon's chest, shattering the dragon man's armor and forcing golden particles out of his mouth.

"I couldn't control myself for a moment and ended up hitting Arisugawa. It shocked and scared me, but…" Guy paused. "I then closed my eyes and took a deep breath. _'Breathe in, breathe out. In and out. Everything should be fine,'_ I told myself."

"And you gained control?" Tasuku questioned.

"Yes."

"I think I kinda get how it works," Tsumugi said. "Guy, what was your impression of Homare when you two fought in Lava Cave?"

As more images of the fight flashed across his mind, to the point that Guy could hear Homare's terrified, agonized speeches, Guy's poker face finally crumbled into a sad look. "Arisugawa kept telling me to run away and leave him alone. I think he was...afraid."

Tasuku scratched his head. "Afraid of what?"

"I don't know."

"Homare is afraid of hurting you," Tsumugi chimed in.

Guy raised an eyebrow. "How do you know, Tsukioka?"

"Try putting yourself in his shoes."

"Try putting myself in Arisugawa's shoes?"

Tsumugi smiled and nodded. "Yeah. It's a handy skill to have if you're struggling to understand others."

"I…" Guy stood still, a hand on his chin. What if he were Homare running wild in Vritramon's form, and at the same time, his troupe mates approached him?

"I'd do the same thing too if I were him," Guy concluded. "I wouldn't want to hurt anyone."

"Right," Tsumugi responded. "Homare told you to leave him alone because he knew he was unstable and dangerous as Vritramon. He probably wanted to try figuring things out by himself, so that nobody got hurt. Homare would never want to hurt his friends."

"That idiot!" Tasuku yelled. "I already told him that we'll still forgive him if he hurts us!"

"It's not that simple, Tasuku. Vritramon can badly injure and even _kill_ us. Even if we forgive Homare for that, he'll never forgive himself."

Tasuku growled.

"Homare couldn't stay calm because he was panicking. Since you need a calm mind to control your Beast Form, that became a big problem," Tsumugi explained. "Meanwhile, Guy was briefly shocked and scared, but he never let the negative emotions affect him."

"In other words, whatever happens, we mustn't lose our cool." Tasuku nodded and clenched his fists, his eyes brimming with confidence. "Okay, I've got this."

Dread settled into Guy's stomach as he remembered the aftermath of the battle in Lava Cave: Homare's heartbeat and breathing had stopped because of him, and he had ended up giving him CPR. The thoughts caused him to break out in cold sweat; would history repeat itself on Tasuku?

Guy wasn't supposed to be afraid, especially after knowing how important one's state of mind was in controlling one's Beast Form, but he couldn't help it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JP - Dub names
> 
> Bakumon - Tapirmon
> 
> Also, the world of Digimon World is weird the more you think about it. Like, the "BGM" for Native Forest is pretty much chirping birds? You can never see birds anywhere except Birdramon and other bird Digimon. However, when your Digimon's happiness gauge is very low, it can spawn a butterfly. Yeah, weird.
> 
> Green Gym actually has a lot more training devices, but they're also pretty weird. Tree Striking involves your Digimon beating the tree, and the tree trunk keeps moving away from the center... Uh, how do I even describe this one... So instead of Tree Striking, I change it to Punching Bag (which can be found at Gear Savannah). The Boulder Pushing is also quite similar in that aspect; your Digimon keeps pushing the boulder until it moves far away from the starting point, and the boulder returns just like that after the training. The Classroom is pretty normal but I didn't include it here.
> 
> As for the restaurant, I draw more inspiration from the anime series (Adventure and 02), so instead of having chefs in shifts like in Digimon World, it has Digitamamon and Bakumon in there.


	26. A Small Improvement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the very slow update this time. I had a lot of work around the time I started writing this chapter. Additionally, I deleted a lot of things because I was forcing myself to just write whatever in my mind after work. When added up, it actually reached over 1k deleted words. Yeah, about a chapter deleted.
> 
> On a happier note, at least I reached 10k for this year's Nano. I thought I could do more but no, got work and stuff. I'll be taking a break for a week or two after this update.

_"Okay, I've got this,"_ Tasuku had said. Yeah, his limbs were cold and his heart was pounding when he said that, and things only worsened when he prepared himself to strike the Spirit Evolution pose. Hurting his friends, especially Tsumugi, was the last thing he'd ever want to do.

Both Guy and Tsumugi had been looking at him, concerned. Oh, great, he'd been too obvious, wasn't he? If Guy could see through him, then Tasuku should just forget about slipping away from Tsumugi.

"You look tense," Tsumugi finally began.

It took a moment for Tasuku to say, "I can't deny it."

"Would it help if we stay away from you?"

Tasuku nodded.

"Then we'll be watching from afar." Tsumugi walked away. "Let's go, Guy."

Guy didn't budge; instead, he kept staring at Tasuku with a worried face.

"I'll be fine," Tasuku told him. "Just go. If I run wild and start hurting you guys, please beat me back to my senses."

Guy's eyes widened as he stood still, completely immobile as if frozen in place by some kind of supernatural force. Beads of sweat rolled down his temple.

"Guy?" Tasuku asked.

Tsumugi walked towards them. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, I just told him to beat me back to my senses if things don't go well."

"I see." Tsumugi looked at Guy. "I understand how you feel, but worrying too much about Tasuku will make him more nervous. So, how about we have faith in him?"

That was Tsumugi's strength: reading people, identifying a conflict, and resolving it with his words ASAP. Tasuku should find spare time to tell Tsumugi that, so that he'd stop lamenting his lack of physical strength. Well, not that Tasuku didn't want Tsumugi to get stronger, but… Chills ran down Tasuku's spine as he remembered how passionate Tsumugi could be about a subject. He might push himself so hard that he hurt himself, wouldn't he?

After a moment of silence, Guy was poker-faced again. "Very well." As he walked away with Tsumugi, he muttered, "Be careful, Takato."

"I will."

Tasuku looked at the waterfall and closed his eyes, breathing deeply but steadily. His head throbbed a bit at the loud crashing of water, but he didn't let it bother him.

Tasuku reached out a hand and made a wide, sweeping arm movement. Then he opened his eyes and swiped his hand against the non-existent D-Scanner. "Spirit Evolution!" he exclaimed.

Two lions made of writhing black energy burst out of the ground and swirled around him. His body went numb as the darkness, in the form of a cyclone, swallowed him whole. Images of a man in a black leonine armor summoning a spear and a shield flashed across his mind.

When he regained his senses, he found out that he was now the armored warrior in the flashes, but without the armaments. The darkness around him faded.

"Lowemon!" the word escaped from Tasuku's mouth.

It was time. After taking in a deep, hearty breath, he lunged and shouted, "Slide Evolution!" As gigantic golden claws grew out of his armored hands and feet, his body moved by itself to get down on all fours. The leonine helmet fused with his head, and the entity transformed into a lion's head with a set of rigid metallic mane. Tasuku felt no pain, surprisingly.

His mouth opened by itself, and something cold writhed in it...

A bolt of dark energy shot out of his gaping maw and struck the craggy wall ahead, leaving nothing but a clean crater.

As his forepaws moved to slash at the ground, Tasuku closed his eyes and inhaled. And exhaled. He was just hitting inanimate stuff. Everything should be fine.

His forepaws slammed into the ground and remained still. A moment later, Tasuku opened his eyes and scrutinized the fissured terrain. Then he walked ahead, towards the crater on the wall.

Nothing happened.

Smiling, Tasuku whirled, picked up their backpack by his teeth, and rushed towards the two humanoid silhouettes in the distance. Running on all fours felt really weird, but Tasuku just knew how to. Maybe Spirit Evolution also burned the knowledge of a Digimon's behavior and power into his brain; otherwise, he'd never believe that the clumsy Tsumugi had slain Etemon.

Arriving at the running track area, he found Tsumugi and Guy performing warm-up stretches. Tsumugi winced and groaned as he moved slowly and stiffly, creaks escaping from his body.

Tasuku put the backpack down and chuckled. "Still stiff as ever." It was fine by him to be honest; Winter Troupe already had its powerhouses, so all it needed was a supervisor. Tsumugi fitted that role to a tee.

Both Tsumugi and Guy stopped stretching and looked at Tasuku.

"Tasuku? You can control your Beast Form?" Tsumugi asked.

Tasuku nodded. "It's all thanks to you guys. I did run wild for a bit, but because nobody was there, I didn't end up hurting anyone. I was able to stay calm and gain control quickly."

"So, staying calm is the key to control Beast Form." Tsumugi stroked his chin. "I want to give it a try too."

As a person who knew how one's mind worked, Tsumugi would succeed without a fuss; Tasuku knew. However, his heart beat fast and hard, as if telling him that Tsumugi would fail.

It wouldn't be fair if he persuaded Tsumugi to not try, would it? After all, Tsumugi had convinced Guy to have more faith in Tasuku when he wanted to try. It was thanks to him Tasuku could gain control easily.

"Guess we'll leave you alone then," Tasuku finally said.

"That'll help," Tsumugi replied. "Thanks."

As Tasuku picked up the backpack again and turned to leave, Guy looked at Tsumugi with a worried face. Tasuku knew how much of a worrywart Guy could be at times, but Guy's concern this time felt too much.

Tasuku dropped the backpack. "Come on, Guy. It'll be easier for Tsumugi to concentrate if we're away."

Guy gulped. Then reluctantly, he walked away from Tsumugi.

With the backpack between his jaws, Tasuku accompanied Guy towards the waterfall. He couldn't take his eyes off Guy, who still had worry written on all over his face.

If Tasuku tried prying, maybe he could help Guy get over the uneasy feelings, but… If there was something Winter Troupe was well-known for, that would be, "Sometimes there are things you won't want to touch."

Sometimes Tasuku thought they needed to change that mindset; as agonizing as it might be, you had to dig deeper to solve some problems after all.

Halting beside the waterfall, Tasuku released the backpack and began, "Uh, Guy…" And he stopped right there, at a loss for words.

"What's the matter, Takato?" Guy asked.

"You don't look well. Is there something in your mind?"

Guy only looked away with a long face. Tasuku shouldn't have tried. Or maybe he just sucked at it.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"No, I'm the one who should apologize for causing you so much concern," Guy replied. "I've been wondering how Mikage's past doesn't bother him much. He told me that he got used to it, but..." He paused. "It sounds tough."

"Does this Spirit Evolution thing remind you of something bad?"

Guy nodded. "I'm terrified whenever I think about having to fight you if you can't control your Beast Form. When I fought Arisugawa yesterday, I… I almost killed him."

A pang of guilt shot up from Tasuku's chest when he remembered that he'd told Guy to fight him should he lose control. No wonder why Guy had frozen after hearing that.

"Yeah, but he's recovering, remember?" Tasuku responded.

"Takato, I made his heart stop beating. I had to give him CPR to save his life."

Tasuku's brain stuttered for a moment as he gasped. This couldn't be. This couldn't-

"You didn't know about it?"

Tasuku shook his head, his heart hammering hard and fast against his chest. As annoying as Homare was at times, this was too much. Way too much. Tasuku would never want to imagine how it felt to experience cardiac arrest.

Noticing the tears in Guy's eyes, Tasuku could only stand still. What should he say to comfort his friend? Everything would be okay? What a silly, cheesy line. Tasuku hated how he could never think of the perfect words and speak up whenever someone needed his support.

A burst of blue light whizzed past Tasuku and smashed into the craggy wall ahead, causing an explosion of dust and rocks.

"Tsumugi?" Tasuku asked.

Growls echoed. A silhouette of something as large as a motorbike stood at the crash site, a pair of gleaming red orbs acting as its headlights. The dust settled, revealing an armored wolf with little wheels attached to the back of its paws. Sunlight glinted off its golden blade-like wings and claws.

The red glow died out, and the wolf let out a sigh of relief.

Together with Guy, Tasuku ran towards the armored canine. "Tsumugi, you okay?"

"Yeah." He looked at Guy. "Guy?"

Tasuku shifted his gaze to the man as well. Guy was smiling now, with tears glistening in his eyes. It brought Tasuku back to when Guy claimed himself to be an android and felt no emotion, and when he did cry, he had claimed it to be an "oil leak."

Seeing Guy's outpouring emotion always warmed Tasuku's heart, although he wished the emotion had been something other than _sorrow_.

"Both of you didn't lose control," Guy muttered.

Tsumugi rubbed his armored cheek with a claw and grinned. "I did, but only for a while."

Tasuku had an idea, although it might not work… No. Whether it'd work or not, he should stop his bad habit of giving up before even trying. Even if it didn't work, he still had Tsumugi by his side.

"Guy," he began, "see? We've all known how to control the Beast Form. We can tell the rest of the troupe about it." He smiled. "You'll never have to fight us."

Guy frowned again. "The next time you evolve, do you need to struggle to gain control again?"

"I'm not sure about that, but it never happens in the series," Tasuku replied. "But even if that happens to us, I bet it'll never be as bad as Arisugawa's incident."

Guy smiled a bit; although Tasuku was no expert in reading people like Tsumugi, he could see the subsiding sorrow in Guy's eyes.

Tasuku had made a small improvement.


End file.
